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IIEE OF COL. FEEMOIT. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth — His Father — Ilia Mother — Her remarkable Beauty and romantic History — Interesting Incident of TraTel, the 
Fight between Benton and Jackson — Fremont enters a Law OfiBce — Goes to College — Falls in Love with a beauttful 
West Indian Girl — Is expelled — Becomes a successful Teaclier of Mathematics — A Ciril Engineer — An Instructor in th« 
Navy — Early an ardent Union man — Professor in the Navy — Resumes Surveying — Accompanies M. Nicollet in bis 
Western Explorations — Commissioned a Lieutenant — First Buffalo Hunt — Forms tho acquaintance of Miss Bentoix— 
Ordered off to the Des Moines River — Marriage. 



JOHN CHARLES FREMONT was born at 
Savannah, Georgia, the 21st day of Janu- 
ary, 1813. His father, for whom, as well as 
for his grandfather on the same side, lie was 
christened, John Charles, was a Frenchman, 
from the vicinity of Lyons. He left France, 
it is believed, on account of having been in- 
volved in some revolutionary movement, and 
was on his way to one of the West India 



islands, when the vessel in which he had era- 
barked was captured by a British cruiser, and 
all tlie passengers were taken prisoners. While 
in captivit_y, they were employed in making 
willow baskets. To this occupation Mr. Fre- 
mont soon added tliat of painting in fresco; 
and for ornamenting, in tlie Spanish style, the 
ceilings in the houses of some of the wealthy 
inhabitants, he received a sufficient sum to 



EsTBUBD according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by GREELEY & M'ELRATII, in the Clerk'g Office of the District 
Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. 



3 



LIFB OP c5l. FREMONT. 






enable him to make bis escape to tbe United 
States. He landed at Norfolk, and thence 
proceeded soon afterwards to Eichmond, where 
he commenced giving French lessons. His 
age, at this time, was about thirty. He was 
©f medium height, sliglitly formed, of swarthy 
complexion, with black cnrliiig hair, large 
black eyes, and pleasant, prepossessing count- 
enance, and gay, frank, elegant manners. 
Something of romance tinged his Hfe. If he 
was now a poor adventurer, he Ijad proved 
himself a brave and determined man, and it 
was not strange that in spite of the intensely 
bitter prejudices of the day and place, he 
should have become the object of the devoted 
love of a high-souled and high-born woman. 
At this time. Major Pryor, who had served in 
the revolutionary war, lived in Richmond. 
He was a wealthy old man, who, at the age 
of sixty-two, had married Anne Beverly, the 
youngest daughter of Colonel Tliomas Whit- 
ing, just then entering upon her eighteenth 
year. She was a woman of most extraordi- 
nary grace and beauty, of gentle, captivating 
manners, with a sweet but singularly melan- 
choly disposition. Slie had been driven to 
this ill-assorted match by her condition at home 
with a ste[)fatlier, who had squandered the 
property bequeathed to her by her own father. 
There was as great disparity of taste as of 
years between Major Pryor and his wife. She 
lived unhappily with him. At last she 
experienced very harsh treatment from her 
husband. She instantly resolved upon a di- 
vorce, which was speedily obtained, and she 
subsequently married Mr. Fremont. Of course 
this step drew down upon her head the wrath 
of all the first families of Virginia, with whom 
she was connected. That a daughter of the 
ancient house of the Whitings — a member of 
which, Col. Tliomas Whiting, Sr., held Wash- 
ington at the flint in baptism — should wed a 
man wlio actually had to earn his own living, 
was a sin never to be forgiven; and it never 
was forgiven. 

Mr. Fremont was fond of adventure. He 
had a strong desire to visit the Indian tribes 
then inliabiting, in large numbers, the States of 
North and South Carolina, Georgia, and 
Tennessee. Travelling at tliat day, even with 
one's own carriage, was not as expensive as 
it is now. He had saved enough from his 
earnings as a teacher to purcliase the requisite 
equipments, and, accompanied by his bride, he 
set out on a tour of exploration through that 
region. They carried with them, in their 
private conveyance, beds and bedding, and 
other conveniences for camping out. Tliey 
were on a journey of this kind, when the 
birtli of John Charles, their first child, took 
place. This event did not long delay them. 
Kude Indian hands were among the first that 
dandled — and with a carelessness not quite 



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F? 



congenial to a parent's feelings — the n&w 
comer. Fremont has often heard his mother ^ 
say how frightened she was at seeing the 
savages take him in their arms and pass him 
about. Indian atrocities were then frequent, 
and were fresh in everybody's mind. Travel 
among the Creeks and Ohoctawa was insepa- 
rably attended with a feeling of insecurity. 
When a white mother saw one of these savages 
take up her infant, her first apprehension wa« 
that he might seize it by the leg and dash out 
its brains against a tree or stone. Thus, with- 
out his own volition, Fremont commenced his 
life with Indians — the people among whom so 
large a subsequent portion of it has been 
passed. '' 

An event, of interest here from the coin- 
cidences attending it, occurred while Mr. and 
Mrs. Fremont were on one of their long excur- 
sions. They were stopping at a hotel in 
Nashville, Tennessee, sitting quietly in their 
room, when the report of fire-arms in an 
adjoining apartment, and tlie whistling of 
balls through their own, suddenly startled 
them. They rushed out to ascertain the cause 
of the disturbance, and learned, in answer to 
their eager inquiries, that Col. Thomas H. 
Benton, accoi»f)anied by some friends of his, 
had come to the hotel and commenced an 
attack with pistols upon Gen. Andrew Jackson, 
who was defended by Gen. Coffee, and others. 
On tlie following day. Col. Benton, who in the 
heat of the mfel^e had carried off Jackson's 
sword, returned with great formality in front 
of the hotel, and in a loud voice, three times 
summoned General Jackson to come forth and 
recover it. Whether the General was detained 
in-doors by his friends or his wounds, at all 
events he "failed to appear. Col. Benton then 
took the sword in both hands, broke it across 
his knee, and threw the pieces on the ground. 
This fight was commenced by Col. Benton, to 
avenge the injuries whicli his brother, Jesse 
Benton, had received in a duel with Gen. 
Jackson. He little dreamed, at the moment 
of the attack, that his intended victim was to 
prove the best and most important friend of 
his after years ; and not only so, but that he 
was endangering, by the shot, the life of his 
future son-in-law. One unhappy consequence 
of this affi-ay was the premature confinement 
of Mrs. Fremont, with a daughter, whose sub- 
sequent early death was believed to be attri- 
butable, in part, to this circumstance. 

Some of the lead wliicli Gen. Jackson 
then received, he carried with him until his 
second term of the Presidency. Col. Benton 
called one day at the Wliite House, and was 
told that the President was sliglitly indisposed. 
A few days afterwards he learned that the 
old General had been relieved of the last 
memorial of that fight — he had just had the 
ball cut oat. 



t>C^ 



lyi.) 



LIFE OTf CX)L. FREMONT. 



Tvfb more cliildren, a daughter and another 
Bon, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fremont 
within the next four years. A large part of 
their married life they resided in the city of 
Norfolk. John Charles had not yet attained 
to his fifth year when his father, just as he 
was on the point of returning to his native 
eountry, took a sadden cold, frt>m exposure on 
a hunting excursion, and in a few days died. 
His widow, with her tiiree little children, was 
left in circumstances extremely lin^ited. She 
afterwards married again; but the union 
brought no acce^^--ion of comfort or happiness 
to her or her children. 

Young Fremonr, after attending school for 
some time in Norfolk and Charleston, at 
about the age of thirteen entered the law 
office of John W. Mitchell, Esq., in Charleston. 
Mr. Mitchell was a man of exemplary character 
and of high standing in the community. He 
took a fancy to Fremont, and invited him to 
enter his office and prepare himself, ulti- 
mately, for tiie practice of the law. Here 
Fremont continued about a year, when Mr. 
Mitchell sent him to the school of Dr. Roberton, 
a Scot-chman of good classical acquirements, 
and particularly skilled in the ancient lan- 
guages. 

Dr. Roberton is still living, and is now 
etigagedin teacliing in the city of Philadelphia. 
In the preface to one of his school-books, pub- 
lished in 1850, he exhorts his pupils to atten- 
tion to their studies, and thus sets before them 
the example of Fremont : 

" For your farther encouragement, I will here re- 
late a very remarkable instance of patient diligence 
jmd indomitable perseverance : 

" In the year 1827, after 1 had returned to Charles- 
ton from Scotland, and my classes were going on, & 
very respectable lawyer came to my school, I think 
some time in the month of October, with a youth 
jmparently about sixteen, or perhaps not so much 
(14), of middle size, graceful in manners, rather 
Mender, but well formed, and upon the whole, what 
I should call handsome ; of a keen, piercing eye, and 
a noble forehead, seemingly the very seat of genius. 
The gentleman stated that he found him given to 
study, that he had been about three weeks learning 
the Latin Rudiments, and (hoping. I suppose, to turn 
the youth's attention from the law to the ministry) 
had resolved to place him under my care for the pur- 
pose of learning Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, suffi- 
cient to enter Charleston College. I very gladly re- 
ceived him, for I immediately perceived he was no 
common youth, as intelligeuce beamed in his dark 
eye, and shone brightly on his countenance, indicat- 
ing great ability, and an assurance of his future pro- 
gress. I at once put him in the highest class, just 
beginning to read Caesar's Commentaries, and al- 
though at first inferior, his prodigious memory and 
enthusiastic application soon enabled him to surpass 
ttie beat. He began Greek at the same time, and 
read with some who had been long at it, in which he 
also soon excelled. And whatever he read, he re- 
tained. It seemed to me, in fact, as if he learned by 
mere intuition. I was myself utterly astonished, and 
at the same time delighted with his progress. I have 
hinted that he was designed for the Church, but when 
I ocMitemplated his bold, fearless disposition, his 



powerful inventive genius, his admiration of warlike 
exploits, and his love of heroic and adventurous 
deeds, I did not think it likely he would be a minister 
of the Gospel. He had not, however, the least ap- 
pearance of any vice whatever. On the contrary, 
he was always the very patte'^n of virtue and mod- 
esty. I could not help loving him, so much did b« 
captivate me by his gentlemanly conduct aud extra- 
ordinary progress. It was easy to see that he wotild 
one day raise himself to eminence. * * * » 
At the end of one year, he entered the Junior Class 
in Charleston College triumphantly, while others who 
had been studying four years and more, were obliged 
to take the Sophomore Class. HLs career afterwards 
has been one of heroic adventure, of hair-breadth 
escapes by flood and field, and of scientific explora- 
tions, which have made him world-wide reuown&d. 
****** Such, my young friends, 
is but an imperfect sketch of my once beloved and 
favorite pupil, now a Senator, and who may yet rise 
to be at the head of this great and growing republic." 

Fremont's rapid progress in his collegiate 
studies was suddenly arrested. Philosophy 
deeper than that of the schods, poetry all frefik 
and living, with a glow not found on the pages 
of the classics, he had discovered in a beau- 
tiful young West Indian girl, whose family, 
driven from St. Domingo by the revolution, 
had come to Charleston to reside. He turned 
from the books which had captivated his boy- 
hood, and which he in turn was rapidly 
mastering, to bathe himself in the elysiam of 
first love. He gazed upon iier coal black hair, , 
her fine features, and delicate form, and ' 
realized a vision of beauty, such as had no4 
before presented itself to his imagination. H© 
looked into her sparkling eyes, and all that, 
had seemed brightness to him before faded in 
comparison. The tones vf her gentle voice 
fell upon his ear, and it grew ^eaf to the sum- 
mons of Ambition which ha^^ soundedi so. 
loud before. 



' the high and powerful ones of earth, 

The grave and schooled philosophers. 
The lielmed sonj of Tictory, have lurned 
Each from the separate idol 
Of his high and vehement ambition, 
To the low Idolatry of human love." 



Fremont's books, to which he had' been; so > 
ardently devoted, were neglected. He yraa,. 
absent from recitations. Tiie faculty, by., 
whom, on account of his former proficiency,, . 
he was highly esteemed, remonstrated with 
him repeatedly, but all in vain. They finally-, 
peremptorily demanded an explanation of 'his 
continued absences. He haughtily refused.thd. 
slightest. There was no course left but to 
expel him, and he was expelled. He bore it 
with entire stoicism, considering 

" The world well lost, and all for love."* 

About this time his brother, who -w&a tb« 
youngest of the three children, left home, 
without informing the family whither he was 
going. Soon afterwards the mjsterious kaud 



LIFE OF COL. FEEMOKT. 



of death removed from his side his lovely and 
only sister, then but seventeen years of age. 
He now grew more serious and thoughtful, and 
life began to wear to him a different and more 
solemn aspect. He firmly resolved that no 
pang should ever be added, by any act of his, 
to the fast accumulating griefs of his mother's 
heart. Teaching opened to him the best 
prospect of immediate usefulness. He com- 
menced a private school in Oliarleston, and soon 
had a large number of pupils. At the same 
time he conducted the classes in several other 
schools through the higher branches of math- 
ematics, in which their instructors were defi- 
cient. His evenings, also, were profitably em- 
ployed in giving instruction at the Apprentices' 
Library. Marked success rewarded his brief ca- 
reer as teacher. He had only assumed it as a 
temporary occupation. He next turned his at- 
tention to civil engineering, as opening a wider 
field of labor, and one more consistent with his 
tastes and objects in life. It happened that, 
for the purpose of partition among the heirs, a 
survey and plan of the estate of a deceased 
planter in the vicinity of Charleston were 
wanted. The work had already been under- 
taken by several, who, from not making sufl[i- 
cient allowance for the variation of the needle, 
or some other cause, had not succeeded in 
running the lines riglit. Under these circum- 
stances, Fremont was applied to. The repu- 
tation which he had already acquired for pro- 
ficiency and accuracy in matliematics, caused 
the parties to turn tx) him as the most compe- 
tent person to extricate them from their 
difficulty. It was in summer — the unhealthy 
season — when work in the low grounds could 
be performed only at the hazard of life. Fre- 
mont promptly undertook tlie task, and 
accomplished it to the entire satisfaction of 
the parties. 

Early in the year 1833, through the steadfast 
friendship of Mr. Poinsett, then Secretary of 
the Navy, Mr. Fremont was appointed teaclier 
of Mathematics on board the sloop-of-war 
Natchez, which had been sent by Gen. Jack- 
son to Charleston, to enforce his famous pro- 
clamation for the suppression of Nullification. 
Fremont, though still a minor, had already 
taken decided ground in favor of the procla- 
mation of the old Hero, and was known as a 
TJnion-saving man of the stiffest kind. Mr. 
Poinsett had enrolled his name in the Light 
Cavalry of Charleston, who were to be called 
into service in case of emergency. He 
remained on board the Natchez more than two 
years, most of the time cruising off the coast 
of South America. 

Soon after his return to Charleston the uni- 
versity, which had expelled him, deemed him 
"wortliy of the bestowment of its honors, and 
• conferred upon him the degrees of Bachelor of 
Arts and Master of Arts. 



I While he had been absent the grade of Pro 
fessor of Matliematics in the Navy had been 
established by law. Mr. Fremont applied for 
an appointment under this act. Candidates 
were required to pass a most rigorous examina- 
tion before a board assembled in Baltimore. 
Mr. Fremont went triumphantly through the 
severe ordeal, which only five or six, out of 
about forty, snc'eeded in passing at all. 

He received his commission and was as- 
signed to the U. S. Frigate lucTependence ; but 
never went on board of her. He made up his 
mind to continue the pur.suit of civil engineer- 
ing. For a few weeks he was engaged in 
improving the route of the Charleston and 
Hamburgh Eail-road, so as to avoid an inclined 
plane, with stationary engines, then existing 
upon it. 

He was next employed upon the survey 
of a rail-road route from Charleston to 
Cincinnati, under Oapt. W. G. Williams, who 
afterwards fell at the battle of Monterey. To 
this service lie was appointed by Gen. Jack- 
son, under the act of Congress of April 30, 
1824, which authorized the President to em- 
ploy two or more skillful engineers on roads 
and canals of national importance in a com- 
mercial or military point of view, or for the 
transportation of the public mail. The sum- 
mer of 1837 he spent in the performance 
of this duty, principally among the moun- 
tains in North and South Carolina and 
Tennessee. The following winter be was 
engaged under the same officer in making a 
military reconnoissance of the country of the 
Cherokees, in anticipation of hostilities be- 
tween them and the whites. This was his first 
experience since childhood among the Indians. 
They were generally in a very unfriendly 
state of feeling towards the whites. A treaty 
had been negotiated for tlieir removal to the 
West. Many of them had quite comfortable 
houses and good forms where they were, and 
general dissatisfaction at the prospect of 
removal prevailed among them. Mr, Fre- 
mont and his companions used to camp out 
nights, protecting themselves against tlie cold 
of the winter by large hickory fires. Much of 
the time tlie ground was covered with snow. 
In the darkness the owls would hoot in the 
trees over their heads, and the panthers 
prowled about their encampments. It was 
a good apprenticeship to Ins subsequent explor- 
ing expeditions. A backwoodsman, named 
Jacob Lowdermilk, was employed by Mr. 
Fremont as a guide. He was a superior spe- 
cimen of the frontier hunter — a good marks- 
man, and perfectly familiar with the country. 
On one occasion Fremont and his guide 
arrived at an Indian village at dusk, and found 
the men all indulging in a drunken frolic. At 
such times they are little better than brutes. 
They fight, and cut, and gash each other with- 



LIFE OF CX)L. FREMONT. 



out ceremony, and seem to care nothing at all 
about it. The women immediately gave notice 
to their visitors that they were in great dan- 
ger, and phiced tliem secretly in an out-build- 
ing used for storing corn, to pass the niglit. 
Here they slept as be-*t they could, with 
corn on the cobs for their bed, and the rats 
running frequently over them for their enter- 
tainment. 

In the Spring of 1838, Mr. Fremont re- 
turned to Wa-liington, and joined M. Nicollet, 
a scientific Frenchman, wlio had been en- 
gaged by the U. S. Government to make an 
examination of the Minnesota country, be- 
tween tlie Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. 
While abseut on this expedition he received 
the commission of Second Lieutenant of tlie 
Topograpliical Engineers. Fremont's princi- 
pal occupation on tliis journey was aiding 
M. Nicollet in his scientitic observations, and in 
making sketclies. 

The following winter the party returned — 
M. Nicollet to St. Louis, and Lieutenant Fre- 
mont to Washington — and almost immediately 
set out together on another similar expedition, 
with orders to explore the country lying 
between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers 
still farther, and up to the British line. 

Wiiile on this expedition Lieutenant Fremont 
participated for the first time in a Buffalo 
hunt. About thirteen hundred miles above St. 
Louis at a trading fort, called Fort Pierre, the 
party crossed the Missouri river, there more 
than a mile broad, and going a few miles out 
into tlie prairie, made their camp. Some of 
the hunters who had been out on horseback 
came in and reported that buffaloes in large 
numbers were in the vicinity. Tiiis was in 
the afternoon. Lnraediately Lieutenant Fre- 
mont and six others mounted their horses, 
and started on a buffalo imnt. After a few 
miles riding they came in sight of several 
large herds. Tliey turned aside to a little hill, 
which concealed them from the buffaloes, 
lightened tiieraselves of everything not ne- 
cessary to tlie race — their coats, hats, and 
everything dispensable — they took off their 
neckerchiefs and tied them around their 
heads, and set out in good earnestn, for a herd. 
They soon came up to tlie buffaloes, and in 
five minutes afterwards, three only — of whom 
Fremont was one — out of the party of seven, 
were remaining in their saddles. Losing 
sight of his companions, and intent only on 
killing a buffalo, Fremont sped on in swift pur- 
suit of the flying herd; on, on, firing when- 
ever he got near enough, and, still unsuc- 
cessful, pressing with yet greater speed on. 
The frightened animals kept before him, 
and out of the reach of a fatal shot, though 
he succeeded in wounding several. At length, 
he found the day so far advanced as to admon- 
ish him of the propriety of commencing to 



retrace his steps. He examined the country, 
and determined which way he ougiit to pro- 
ceed. He took a broad, clearly-marked path, 
and rode on, hour after hour, many and many 
a weary mile. 

His horse grew tired, and he alternately rode 
and led liim. At length he discovered that it 
was a buffalo trail which he had been pursu- 
ing; that the map which he had as liis only 
guide was erroneous; a bend of the river, 
sixty miles in length, was not laid down upon 
it, and thus, through a gross blumler of the 
geographer, he had got lost. This little inci- 
dent was well calculated to impress upon his 
mind an increased conviction of the impor- 
tance and value of a more correct and exact 
knowledge of the geography of some portions 
of our country than wsis tlien possessed. It 
was now near midnight. He found a ravin© 
containing water, and determined to picket 
his horse and lie down till morning. Tying 
the long rope by which the horse was secured, 
to the saddle, and laying that down for a pil- 
low, so that the horse could not stray oft" with- 
out disturbing liim, he was about to lie down 
to sleep, when he beheld rocket after rocket 
ascend into the air. He knew at once that 
these were sent up from the camp as signals 
for him. But he was too far off, and his 
horse was too tired, to reach there that night. 
So he carefully laid his rifle down on the 
ground, pointing precisely in the direction of 
the camp, and went to sleep. AVith the 
dawn of day he was astir, and started towards 
the camp. He had proceeded but a little 
way when he perceived several horsemen in 
the distance. They rapidly approached him, 
and lie soon discovered that tkey were some 
of his companions. Up they rode, in great 
haste, stretching out towards him their hands 
in a half frenzied manner. He did not know 
what to make of it. At length the foremost 
of tlie party touched him, and he then received 
an exj)lanation of their apparently strange con- 
duct, in the circumstance that a reward, after 
lie was known to have got lost, had been 
offered in camp, to the man who should first 
lay iiands upon him. 

For more than a year after Ids return from 
this second expedition, in 1839, Lieutenant 
Fremont was busy in assisting M. Nicollet, 
and Mr. Hassler, then at the head of the coast 
survey, in preparing a report and an illus- 
trative map. 

Tliis residence in the fashionable metropolis, 
during which nothing but cteady and quiet 
labor had been anticipated, was marked by 
events not less interesting in the hfe of Fre- 
mont, and which took far deeper hold of his 
being, tlian any of his wild adventures in th« 
mountains of Tennessee or the prairies of the 
West. One evening, at a concert, he was struck 
with the resemblance in the fau face of a very 



6 



LIFE OF COL. rEKMONT. 



yontliful-looking girl to his departed sister. 
He inquired of a friend who she was, and 
learned in rpply that slie was Miss Jessie Ben- 
ton, the second daughter of Col. Benton. Just 
as he put the question he was startled to hear 
her inquire who he was. Mutual admiration 
kad seized thera. Unfortunately it did not 
extend so as to comprehend within the 
banned circle her parents — at least not 
BufBciently to secure their consent to the mar- 
Kiage, which, a year and a half later, resulted 
from the acquaintance. They objected on 
account of tlie extreme youth of their daugh- 
ter, who at the time of the first meeting was 
only fifteen years old, and because he was but 
a subordinate officer in the army, without suffi- 
cient means to support a family. He had, also, 
to contend with most formidable rivals for her 
hand. His perplexities were increased by the 
reception of an unexpected order to proceed 
to the Territory of Iowa, and make a survey 
cf the Des Mdines River. The precise useful 
object to be subserved by this work has never 
yet transpired. Fremont faithfully obt-yed the 
order, and returned to find the opposition to 



his marriage still nnabated. But lovie is 
strong, and both parties had strong wills of 
their own. They were married in the city of 
Washington, in 1841, at the house of a friend, 
who procured a Catholic priest to perform the 
ceremony, after Lieutenant Fremont had ai>- 
plied in vain to a Protestant clergyman to offi- 
ciate. It is believed that not one word upon 
the subject of the marriasfe ever passed be- 
tween the father of the bride and his son-in- 
law after it took place. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
Benton had from their first acquaintance with 
Mr. Fremont, been pleased with his modesty 
and refined manners. But neither of them 
dreamed of the bright and important future 
wiiich the hand of the quiet and retiring 
young lieutenant was to carve out for himself. 
There is a story that some years afterwards, 
an elderly friend of the great Missourian, who 
had been listening to an unmeasured eulogium 
from him upon his son-in-law, inquired how 
it happened that he so strenuously opposed 
his marriage ; and that Col. Benton replied 
that it merely proved that his daughter had 
turned out a better judge of men than he was. 



CHAPTER II. 



First Exploring Expedition — Kit Oaraon — Randolph Benton — False Alarm — Warlike Indiana — Slaughter of the whote 
Party threatened — Speech of an Indian Chief — Fremont's chiyalric Reply — He mov«s forward in the face of Danger — 
A useful Squaw — More Discouragements — Freemont undaunted — Devotion of his Men — Mountain Sheep — Turns his 
kand to Instrument mending — Raises the Hag on th« highest Peak of the Rocky Mountains). 



FREMONT has conducted five Exploring Ex- 
peditions—the first to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and the four subseqixent ones as far as 
California. He started from Washington on 
the first expedition commanded by himself, on 
the 2d day of May, 1842, under orders to 
explore and report upon the country be- 
tween the frontiers of Missouri and the 
South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, and 
on the line of the Kansas and Great Platte 
Rivers. On the 22d of May he arrived at St. 
Louis, and in that vicinity collected together 
twenty-one men, principally Creole and Cana- 
dian voyageurs^ who had become familiar with 
prairie hfe in the service of the fur companies 
HI the Indian country. The final arrangements 
for the expedition were completed at Choteau's 
Trading House, near the mouth of the Kansas 
River, about four hundred miles from St. 
Louis. 

The guide was Christopher Carson, known 
l>r his exploits in the mountains, more fami- 
Karly as Kit Carson. This man has attained 
to a greater celebrity than any other of the 
heroic sharers in Fremont's adventures. Kit 
is a native of Kentucky, the son of one of the 
early hunters of that Slate, and is about two 



years older than Mr. Fremont. A great por- 
tion of his life has been spent as a trapper 
and hunter among the Indians. He is a short, 
light, but muscular man, with mild blue eyes, 
an open, pleasant countenance, indicative of a 
naturally amiable disposition. He is fearless, 
thoroughly trained to the difficulties and dan- 
gers of life in the wilderness, a dead shot with 
the rifle, can track an Indian as if with the 
scent of a hound, and in an emergency can 
even practice tiie trick of tlie savage with the 
scalping-knife. He sticks to a steed as the 
skin on his back, and rides like the wind. 
Fremont says in his narrative that, mounted 
on a fine horse, without a saddle, and scouring 
bareheaded over the prairies. Kit was one of 
the finest pictures of a horseman that he had 
ever seen. His first wife was a Sioux. After 
her death he married a native of New Mexico, 
where he now lives, surrounded by his family, 
engaged in the peaceful pursuit of farming, and 
also acting in the official capacity of Indian 
Agent for that territory. Lieutenant Fremont 
first fell in with Carson on a steamboat above 
St. Louis, as he was starting on this expedi- 
tion. He was fortunate in securing such a 
guide. 



LIFE Off COL. FREMONT. 



Before starting on this jonrney, Lieutenant 
Fremont received a marked compliment — thus 
soon after his marriage — from his father-in- 
law, who entrusted to him, under the hazard- 
ous circumstances which must attend his ex- 
ploits, his only son, Randolph Benton, then a 
boy of twelve years. Young Benton soon 
proved himself worthy of his name and blood. 
His first night on guard was one in which the 
blackness of darkness was made visible by the 
frequent lightning with which the whole sky 
seemed tremulous. Rain poured in torrents, 
and the loud thunder rolled overhead. Ston«s 
of bloody Indian fights were rife in the camp. 
But the brave boy — -with a companion of nine- 
teen, Henry Brant of St. Louis — stood it out, 
and they regularly took their turn afterwards. 
At Fort Laramie the hostile disposition pre- 
vailing among the Indians became so clearly 
developed that it was deemed prudent to leave 
tliem both. Benton, to use the language of 
Fremont, had been " the life of the camp." 
They were sorry to part with him. His sud- 
den death, at St. Louis, at the age of twenty- 
one, after manifesting bright signs of promise, 
gives a melancholy interest to this brief men- 
tion of him. He was the sole inheritor of his 
father's name. Only a few days before his 
death he made an address in German to Gov. 
Kossuth, then on a visit to Missouri, which 
was highly commended. 

Fremont had one man in his party who had 
probably received his training at the hands of 
some old politicians. On the morning of June 
22d, as they were proceeding up the valley of 
a little creek in the country of the Pawnees, 
this man, who was a short distance in the 
rear, came spurring up in great haste, shouting 
Indians ! Indians ! He had been near enough 
to see and count them, according to his report, 
and had made out twenty-seven. They im- 
mediately halted and put their arms in order, 
and Kit Carson was dispatched to reconnoitre. 
He soon returned with the intelligence that 
the Indian war party of twenty-seven, con- 
sisted of six elk, which had been gazing 
curiously at the caravan as it passed by and 
were now scampering otf at full speed ! 

If the man who made the first report, not 
only more than quadrupling their number, 
but also converting these simple elk into 
savage Indians, with tomahawk and scalping- 
knife in hand, is still extant, he might find 
congenial employment, though not without 
powei^l rivalry, in the service of the Demo- 
cratic party. 

Fremont gives the following account of a 
dog feast, which, in compliance with one invi- 
tation out of many of a similar character from 
the Indians, he attended : 

"The women and childrea were sitting outside 
the lodge, and we took our seats on buffalo robes 
spread around. The dog was in a large pot over 



the fire, in the middle of the lodge, and immediately 
on our arrival was dished up in large wooden bowls, 
one of which was handed to each. The flesh ap- 
peared very glutinous, with something of the flavor 
and appearance of mutton. Feeling something mov« 
behind me, 1 looked round, and found that I had 
taken my seat among a litter of fat young puppies. 
Had I been nice in such matters, the prejudices of 
civilization might have interfered with my tranquil- 
lity ; but, fortunately, I am not of delicate nerves, 
and continued quietly to empty my platter." 

On the 13th of July they arrived at Fort 
Laramie, in Nebraska. Here they found that 
the country was swarming with scattered war- 
parties of Indians. The very atmosphere 
seemed to be filled with stories of blood and 
carnage, which in some form were inhaled 
with every breath. Ditficulties and encoun- 
ters had taken place between parties of whites 
and the savages, and the'latter were terribly ex- 
asperated. Panic seized the men. Fremont 
remained calm and determined. Desiring to 
have no one with him who was afraid, he ad- 
dressed his men and told thera that such as 
were anxious to return had only to come for- 
ward at once and state their deaire, and they 
would be discharged with the amount due to 
them for the time they had served. Only one 
man, however, availed himself of the permis- 
sion. But those who resolved to go on were 
not insensible to the dangers actually existing. 
Even Kit Carson made his will. 

On the twenty-first they were ready to de- 
part. The tents were struck, the mules geared 
up, the horses saddled, they had walked to the 
fort to take a stirrup cup with their friends, 
in an excellent home-brewed preparation, whea 
in rushed four powerful, tine-looking Indiaa 
chiefs, rejoicing respectively in the names of 
Otter-Hat, Breaker of Arrows, Black-Night, 
and BuU's-Tail, and delivered to Lieut._ Fre- 
mont a note from Joseph Bissonette, the inter- 
preter, advising him that the chiefs in council 
liad told him to warn Fremont not to set onfe 
before their young men, who had gone to th« 
mountains, and who would be sure to fire on 
him as soon as they should meet him, should 
return. Then one of the savages stood up and 
spoke as follows : 

WARNING OP THE INDIAN CHIEF. 

"Yon have come among us at a bad time. Some 
of our people have been killed, and our young men, 
who have gone to tie mountains, are eager to 
avenge the blood of their relations, which has been 
shed by the whites. Our young men are bad, and, 
if they meet you, they will believe that you are car- 
ryintr goods and ammunition to their enemies, and 
will fire upon you. You have told us that this will 
make war. We know that our great father has 
many soldiers and big guns, and we are anxious to 
have our lives. We love the whites, and are desir- 
ous of peace. Thinking of all these things, we have 
determined to keep you here until our warriors re- 
turn. We are glad to see you among us. Oar 
father is rich, and we expected that you would have 
brought presents to us— horses, guns, and blanketa. 



LIFE OF COI^ FEEMONT. 



Bat we are glad to see you. We look upon your 
coming as the light which goes before the sun ; for 
you will tell our great father that you have seen us, 
and that we are naked and poor, and have nothing 
to eat; and he will send us all these things," 

Lieut. Fremont, through an interpreter, re- 
quested some of the Indians to accompany 
him, as their presence would avert the dan- 
ger. They refused. It was then tliat the 
young explorer, rising with the emergency, to 
the sublimest heroism, gave back in response 
for their false professions and menacing asser- 
tions, the He and defiance in their teeth. 

The addresses by Bonaparte to his soldiers, 
before his great battles, and on the fields of his 
glory, are almost matchless in their eloquence, 
and among tlie most brilliant emanations of 
genius. Is there anything in them, which — 
especially if all the surrounding circumstances 
be taken into consideration — surpasses the fol- 
lowing ? 

Fremont's beply to the indian chief. 

"Yon say that you love the whites; why have you 
killed so many already this spring? You say that 
you love the whites, and are full of many expressions 
of friendship to us ; but you are not wilUng to under- 
go the fatigue of a few days' ride to save our lives. 
We do not believe what you have said, and will not 
listen to you. Whatever a chief among us tells his 
soldiers to do, is done. We are the soldiers of the 
great chief, your father. He has told us to come here 
and see this country, and all the Indians his children. 
Why should we not go ? Before we came, we heard 
that you had killed his people, and ceased to be his 
children ; but we came among you peaceably, holding 
out our hands. Now, we find that the stories we 
heard are not lies, and that you are no longer his 
friends and children. We have thrown away our 
bodies, and will not turn back. When you told us 
that your j'oungmen would kill us, you did not know 
that our hearts were strong, and you did not see the 
rifles which my young men carry in their hands. 
We are few, and you are many, and may kill us all ; 
but there will be much crying in your villages, for 
many of your young men will stay behind, and forget 
to return with your warriors from the mountains. Do 
you think that our great chief will let his soldiers 
die and forget to cover their graves? Before the 
snows melt again, his warriors will sweep away 
your villages, as the fire does the prairie in the au- 
tumn. See ! I have pulled down my white houses, 
and my people are ready ; when the sun is ten 
paces higher, we shall be on the march. If you 
have anything to tell us, you will say it soon." 

" Is the route practicable ?" asked Napoleon 
of the engineer who had been sent forward to 
survey Mount St. Bernard. " It is barely pos- 
sible," was the reply. " Forward then," said 
Napoleon ; and his words became immortal. 

Fremont received a different answer from 
his guide. Friend and foe alike held up before 
him, vividly, the prospect of certain destruc- 
tion. Carson, the personification of courage, 
saw occasion to make the last preparations for 
death, and executed his will. Condensing his 
soul into a few undying words : " "We have 



thrown away our bodies and will not turn 
back," said the unwavering hero. 

They mounted their horses and rode on. 
The Indians, notwithstanding all that they had 
said, sent a chief up, just as they were start- 
ing, and promised a guide, who joined them 
at tlieir stopping-place that evening. He came 
with Mr. Bissonette, the interpreter, and was 
accompanied by his wife. Her services proved 
very convenient just at that hour. Lieut. 
Fremont had procured a large Indian lodge at 
the Fort, and none of the men understood how 
to pitch it. The squaw laughed at their awk- 
wardness and ofl:ered her assistance, which 
they continued to avail themselves of till the 
men acquired sutficient expertness to pitch 
it without difiiculty. On the 28th of July they 
met a large company of Indians who gave a 
very discouraging picture of the country. The 
great draught, and the plague of grasshoppers, 
had swept it so that scarce a blade of grass 
was to be seen, and there was not a buS"alo to 
be found in the whole region. Their people, 
they further said, had been nearly starved to 
death, and their road would be found marked 
by lodges which they had thrown away in or- 
der to move more rapidly, and by the carcas- 
ses of the horses which they had eaten, or 
which had perished by starvation. Such was 
the prospect which they depicted. Mr. Bis- 
sonette, the interpreter, immediately rode up 
to Col. Fremont and urgently advised tliat he 
should entirely abandon the further prose- 
cution of his exploration. "The best advice 
I can give you," said he, "is to turn back at 
once." It was his oAvn intention to return, as 
they had now reached the point to which he 
had engaged to go. Lieut. Fremont called up 
his men, and communicated to them fully the 
information he had received, and then ex- 
pressed to them his fixed determination to 
proceed to the end of the enterprise on which 
he had been sent; but as the situation of the 
country gave some reason to apprehend that 
it might be attended Avith an unfortunate re- 
sult to some, he would leave it optional with 
them to continue with him or to return. 

But not a man flinclied from the undertaking, 
" We'll eat the mules," said Basil Lajennesse ; 
and thereupon tliey shook hands with the in- 
terpreter and his Indians, and parted. With 
them was sent back one of the men, Dumes, 
whom the eflfects of an old wound in the leg 
rendered incapable of continuing the journey 
on foot, and whose horse seemed on the point 
of giving out. 

The second day after this, as they were cross- 
ing over from the Platte to the Sweet Water 
River, they discovered, for the first time, nu- 
merous herds of mountain sheep, or goats, for 
they are called by both names. The flesh of 
these animals resembles that of the Alleghany 
mountain sheep. Their horns are frequently 



LIFE OF OOL, FREMONT. 



three fe«t long, and seventeen inches in cir- 
cumfereace at the base, weighing eleven 
pounds. The use of these horns seems to be 
to protect the animal's head in pitching down 
precipices to avoid the pursuing wolves. 

On the 10th day of August they came un- 
expectedly in view of a must beautiful lake, 
set like a gem in the mountains. Proceeding 
on, amid the graud scenery by which they 
were surrounded, they soon reached the out- 
let, and in attempting to ford it, experienced a 
piece of bad luck, which, with the remedy in- 
vented for it, are thus described in the narra- 
tive: 

" In crossing this stream, I met with a great misfor- 
tune in having my barometer broken. It was the 
only one. A great part of the interest of the journey 
for me \va,a in the exploration of these mountains, of 
which much had been said that was doubtful and 
contradictory; and now their snowy peaks rose ma- 
jestically before me, and the only means of giving 
them authentically to science, the object of lAy anx- 
ious solicitude by night and day, was destroyed. 
We had brought this barometer in safety a thousand 
miles, and broke it almost among the snow of the 
mouutains. The loss was felt by the whole camp — 
all had seen my anxiety, and aided me in preserving 
it. The height of these mountains, considered by 
the hunters and traders the highest in the whole 
range, had been a theme of constant discussion 
among them; and all had looked forward with plea- 
sure to the moment when the iustrumeut, which they 
believed to be true as the sun, should stand upon the 
summits, and decide their disputes. Their grief was 
only inferior to my own. 

As soon as the camp was formed, I set about 
endeavoring to repair my barometer. As I have 
already said, this was a standard cistern barometer, 
of Troughton's construction. The glass cistern had 
been broken about midway ; but as the instrument 
had been kept in a proper position, no air had found 
its way into the tube, the eud of which had always 
remained covered. I had with me a number of vials 
of tolerably thick glass, some of which were of the 
same diameter as the cistern, and I spent the day in 
slowly working on these, endeavoring to cut them of 
the requisite length ; but as my instrument was a 
very rough tile, 1 invariably broke them. A groove 
was cut iu one of the trees, where the barometer was 
placed during the night, to be out of the way of any 
possible danger, and in the morning I commenced 
again. Among the powder-horns in the camp, I 
found one which was very transparent, so that its 
contents could be almost as plainly seen as through 
glass. This I boiled and stretched on a piece of wood 
to the requisite diameter, and scraped it very thin, in 
order to increase to the utmost its transparency. I 
then secured it tirmly in its place on the instrument, 
with strong glue made from a buffalo, and tilled it 
with mercury, properly heated. A piece of skin, 
which had covered one of the vials, furnished a good 
pocket, which was well secured with strong thread 
and glue, and theu the brass cover was screwed to 
its place. The instrument was left some time to dry ; 
and whi?!i I reversed it, a few hours after, 1 had the 
satisfaction to find it in perfect order ; its indication 
being about the same as on the other side of the lake 
before it had been broken. Our success in this little 
incident diffused pleasure throughout the camp ; and 
we immediately set ai)Out our preparations for as- 
cending the mountains." 

They were now on that short mountain 
chain from which flow the Platte and Mis- 



souri Elvers to the East and the Colorado and 
Columbia Avestward. Their provisions had 
well nigh disappeared. Two or three pounds 
of coffee, a little macaroni, and some dried 
buftalo meat, as hard as wood, were all they 
had remaining. Bread had long been out of 
the question. Game was vei-y scarce. They 
were surrounded by the Black Feet Indians, 
who were not friendly, and a strong guard was 
constantly necessary. But Fremont would not 
turn his face from the mountains till he should 
have explored their highest peak. In a grove 
of beech, near a lake, they erected a breast- 
work of felled timber and interwoven branches, 
facing an Indian fort only two or three hun- 
dred fe^et distant. Fifteen of the best mules 
and fourteen men were selected for the moun- 
tain party. 

Early on the morning of August 12th, they 
left the camp and commenced the ascent. 
They found a rocky road and a tortuous way, 
interrupted by broken ledges, precipices and 
lakes of surpassing beauty. Impassable barriers, 
at which the guides seemed astonished, barred 
their progress, and from one route they turned 
to another. Finally, in the afternoon, they dis- 
covered a little defile leading towards what, 
after long consultation, they had decided to be 
the highest peak of the range, and were de- 
lighted with the prospect of a smoother road 
for the next day. They returned just in time 
for supper. 

The next morning they started again bright 
and early, and having entered the little defile, 
followed it about three miles, when they 
reached its al)rupt termination. Tlie view- 
here was grand and beautiful. Tlie eye could 
stretch forward, but there was no chance for 
the mules to go. Asters were in bloom 
around, and their fragrance ascended. The 
men began to wish that they might go up as 
easily as this sweet smell, for unless they could 
climij by the atmosphere tliere seemed to be 
no otlier mode of ascent. Tliey had the con- 
solation to reflect that their bodies were daily 
growing ligliter, and might not encumber their 
spirits much longer. Fremont, however, wa.s 
determined to go on whetlier there was any 
way or not. They left their mules and under- 
took to proceed on foot. A few men remained 
in charge of tlie animals, and the rest moved 
forward as they could. The peak seemed 
near, and they thought that they could reach 
it and get back to tlie camp before night. 
They soon found themselves involved in rag- 
ged precipices. They clambered on, always 
expecting, with every ridge they crossed, to 
reach the foot of the peak, and always disap- 
pointed. At night they encamped by a little 
lake. Large flocks of mountain-goats appear- 
ed in sight. Several went in pursuit of them, 
but returned without killing any. Shortly 
after they encamped, Fremont was taken and' 



10 



LIFB OF COL. FREMONT. 



denly sick, with head-ache and vomiting, 
■which continued till late in the night. 

The following morning they rose from their 
gi-anite beds with the daylight, and tried again 
to make the ascent. They got dispersed 
among some ice-fields, every man trying to 
find the best way up. One man, Mr. Preuss, 
attempted to walk on the edge of one of these 
ice-fields, when his feet slipped from under 
Jiim, and he went plunging down the plain 
several hundred feet, among some sharp frag- 
ments of rock, turning two somersets on his 
way down. Carson made out to reach one of 
the snowy summits of the main ridge, and 
still beheld the peak, towards which all their 
efforts were directed, towering eight or ten 
hundred feet into the air above him. Fre- 
mont grew worse rather than better, and des- 
patched Basil Lajeunesse and four men back 
to the place where the mules had been left, 
with directions to bring back, if possible, four 
or five mules with him, and such provi- 
sions as there were remaining. The party 
now straggled back, one atler another, into 
the camp. Basil returned in the evening, hav- 
ing exchanged his four men for fresh ones, and 
bringing some dried beef, coflfee, and blankets. 
Lieut. Fremont entirely recovered his health 
that night. 

In the morning, Carson returned to the 
eamp of the mules, leaving only four men with 
Fremont. This was the 15th of August, the 
great day of the expedition, for on this day 
the excelsior dream of the explorer was real- 
ized, and the American flag was carried higher 
than it ever went before. 

The sure-footed mules leaped from one 



sharp angular point of rock to another as far 
as they could go ; then they were left and the 
men climbed up the steep, slippery rocks, 
holding on with their toes and fingers. At 
last, Fremont sprang upon the summit. Ano- 
ther step would have precipitated him into an 
immense snow-field five hundred feet below. 
To the edge of this field was a sheer icy pre- 
cipice ; and then with a gradual fall, the field 
sloped off for about a mile, until it struck the 
foot of another lower ridge. Fremont stood 
on a narrow crest, only about three feet wide, 
with a considerable inclination. He got 
down, and every man ascended in his turn. 
He would allow but one at a time to mount 
the unstable and precarious slab, which it 
seemed a breath would hurl into the abyss 
below. Here they mounted the barometer in 
the snow of the summit, and fixing a ramrod 
in a crevice, unfurled the national flag to 
wave in the breeze where never flag waved 
before. Strangely enough a solitary bee ap- 
peared in this elevated and cold place, and lit 
on the knee of one of the men. He was 
pressed between the leaves of a large book of 
flowers. They regarded him as the emblem 
of civihzation, the precursors in which often 
meet his fate : they perish but are preserved in 
books. This is the higliest peak of the Eocky 
Mnuntains, and is now called Fremont's Peak. 
Tliat night they got back to tlieir deposit 
of provisions, and slept on tlie solid rock. Tlie 
nextday they were again in motion, homewards 
bound ; and on the I7th of October, having 
experieViced many vicissitudes of more or le^s 
interest and hazard, they were once more safe 
at St. Louis. 



CHAPTER HI. 



Second Expedition — Gentlemen a Nuisance among Explorers — Fremont chooses himself to Experiment on with Sus- 
pected Meat — The Widow of a Murdered Man protected — Finding of a Stray Ox — Irruption of Shoshonee Indians — 
Eating Valerian— Destitute Condition of Indian Women— Liider's Bay— The Indian Guide Deserts— Feast on Pea 
Soup, Mule and Dog— Man Craied by Hunger— Arrival at Sutter's Fort— Set out to Return— Scalping a Live Indian 
—A Man Murdered by the Savages— Another Killed by Accident — Arrival at St. Louis. 



ACCOMPANIED by thirty-nine men, Fre- 
mont left the town of Kansas, on his 
second exploring expedition, May 29, 1843. 
His instructions were to connect his recon- 
noisance of 1842 with the surveys of Com- 
mander Wilkes on the Pacific ocean, so as to 
give a connected survey of the interior of our 
continent. 

He permitted a few travellers not belonging 
to the party to accompany him, but soon came 
near paying a severe penalty for this courtesy. 
A horse belonging to one of these persons was, 
through carelessness, allowed to escape. A man 
who was sent in pursuit of him returned to 



the camp at full speed, followed by a war par- 
ty of Osage Indians, with gay, red blankets, 
and heads shaved to the scalp lock. The Osages 
when they charged into the camp drove off a 
number of the best horses ; but fortunately 
they were all recovered. " This accident," says 
Lieut. Fremont, " which occasioned delay and 
trouble, and threatened danger and loss, and 
broke down some good horses at the start, and 
actually endangered the expedition, was a first 
fruit of having gentlemen in company — very 
estimable, to be sure, but who are not trained 
to the care, and vigilance, and self-dependence 
which such an expedition required, and who 




^MMMUhriHAaAftMh^MliiiMMiMM^i^^MH 



^dU^ 



12 



LIFE OF COL. FREMONT. 



are not subject to tlie orders whicli enforce at- 
tention and exertion." 

On the 9th of July they killed a buffiilo bull. 
The day following several of tlie ineu were 
sick, and Lieut. Fremont attributed it to eat- 
ing the bull's meat. On the 11th he writes : 

" As the greater part of the men continued sick I 
encamped here for the day, and ascertained conclu- 
sively from experiments on myself that their illness 
was caused by meat of the buflalo bull." 

On July 20th, some Delaware Indians who 
had been of the party were obliged to return to 
their homes, and Alexander Gode}', a young 
man of about 25 years of age, in courage and 
skill as a hunter a formidable rival to Carson, 
was engaged, in their place, to shoot game. 

An Indian woman of the Snake nation, the 
widow of a Frenchman who had been mur- 
dered alittle previous, was here taken into pro- 
tection, with her two little half-breeds, and 
provided with a small tent. SJie was return- 
ing to her own people. 

On the second of August, everybody, was 
surprised by the appearance of a large red ox. 
He had probably made his escape from some 
party of emigrants on Green Kiver ; and with 
a vivid remembrance of some old green fiebl, 
he was pursuing the straightest course for tlie 
frontier that the country admitted. Fremont 
says : 

" We carried him along with us as a prize ; and 
■vfhen it wa« found in the morning that he had wan- 
dered off, I would not let him be pursued, for I 
would rather have gone through a starving time of 
three entire days, than let him be killed after he 
had successfidly run the gauntlet so far among the 
Indians." 

The reader familiar with the political his- 
tory of this country will be struck with the 
marked resemblance of the sentiment here ex- 
hibited, and that once so tersely expressed by 
Hknkt Clay on the recapture of fugitive 
slaves. 

" I have been told," continues Fremont, " by Mr. 
Bent's people, of an ox born and raised at St. Vrain's 
fort, which made his escape from them at Elm grove, 
near the frontier, Tiaving come in that year with the 
wagons. They were on their way out, and saw occa- 
sionally places where he had eaten and lain down to 
rest ; but did not see him for about 700 miles, when 
they overtook him on the road, travelling along to 
the fort, having unaccountably escaped Indians and 
every other mischance. 

August 21st, in the valley of Bear River, 
the principal tributary to tlie Great Salt Lake, 
they came into tlie vicinity of a large villag® 
of the Shoshonee Indians. The narrative 
says : 

" We had approached within something more than 
ft mile of the village, when suddenly a single horse- 
man emerged from it at full speed, oUowed by ano- 



ther, and another in rapid succession; and then 
party after party poured into the plain, until, when 
the foremost rider reached us, all the whole inter- 
vening plain was occupied by a mass of horsemen, 
which came charging down upon us with guns, 
naked swords, lances, and bows and arrows — Indians 
entirely naked, and warriors fully dressed for war, 
with the long red streamers of their war bonnets 
reaching nearly to the ground, all mingled together 
in the bravery of savage warfare. They had been 
thrown into a sudden tumult by the appearance 
of our flag, which, among these people, is regarded 
as an emblem of hostility — it being usually borne by 
the Sioux, and the neighboring mountain Indiana 
when they come here to war : and we had accord- 
ingly, been mistaken for a body of their enemies. A 
few words from the chief quieted the exritfment ; 
and the whole band, increasing every moment in 
number, escorted us to their encampment. I ate there 
for the first time, the Kooijah, or tobacco root, {vale- 
rina edidis), the principal edible root among the In- 
dians who inhabit the upper waters of the streams 
on the western side of the mountains. It has a very 
strong and remarkably peculiar taste and odor, 
which I can compare to no other vegetable that I 
am acquainted with, and whicli to some persons is 
extremely offensive. It was characterized by Mr. 
Preuss as the most horrid food he had ever put in his 
mouth ; and when, in the evening, one of the chiefs 
sent his wife to me with a portion which she had 
prepared as a delicacy to regale us, the odor imme- 
diately drove him out of the lodge ; and frequently 
afterwards he used to beg that when those who liked 
it had taken what they desired, it mi^ht be sent 
away. To others, however, the taste is rather an 
agreeable one ; and I was afterwards always glad 
when it formed an addition to our scanty meals. It 
is full of nutriment; and in its unprepare'd state is 
said by the Indians to have very strong poisonous 
qualities, of which it fs deprived by a peculiar pro- 
cess, being baked in the ground for about two 
days." 

On the 4th of November they were within 
hearing of the Falls of the Columbia. The 
Columbia Indians are descx'ibed as very infe- 
rior. Fremont says : 

" In comparison with the Indians of the Rocky 
Mountains and the great Eastern plain, these are 
disagreeably dirty in their habits. We were some- 
what amused with the scanty dress of one woman, 
who, in common with the others, rushed out of the 
huts on our arrival, and who, in default of other cov- 
eriwg, used a child for a fig leaf." 

A Methodist Missionary Station, about a 
hundred miles above Fort Vancouver, terml. 
uated the Western journey of most of the 
party, while Fremont himself, with a few 
men, went down to the Fort, which is within 
about seventy miles of the Pacific. 

The following Uttle incident, narrated under 
date of November 13th, shows the kind feel- 
ing in which the name of Liidei's Bay was 
conceived : 

" A gentleman named Liiders, a botanist from the 
city of Hamburg, arrived at the bay I have called by 
his name while we were occupied in bringing up the 
boats. I was delighted to meet at such a place 
a man of kindred pursuits; but we had only the 
pleasure of a brief conversation, as his canoe, under 
the guidance of two Indians, was about ^ run 
the rapids, and I could not enjoy the satisfaction of 



LIFE OF COL. FKEMONT. 



13 



regaling him with a breakfast, which, after his recent 
journey, would have been an extraordinary luxury. 
All of his few instruments and baggage were in the 
canoe, and he hurried around by land to meet it at 
the Grave-yard bay; but he was scarcely out of 
sight when, by the carelessness of the Indians, the 
boat was drawn into the midst of the rapids, and 
glanced down the river, bottom up, with the loss of 
everything it contained. In the natural concern I 
felt for his misfortune, I gave to the little cove the 
name of Lilder's Bay." 

From the Indians about the missionary sta- 
tion they procured some new animals, and 
from Vancouver a number of cattle. Altoge- 
ther, when they started on their return, the 
25th day of November, they had 104 umles 
and horses. Their course was southerly, as 
their plan was to pursue a new route home. 
There was at that time a general belief, 
founded on the reports of trappers, in the 
existence of a large river having its rise in the 
Rocky Mountains, and emptying into the Pa- 
cific Ocean. Fremont travelled a thousand 
miles to find it, designing to tbllow its valley 
homeward. But the river existed only in the 
ignorant conjectures of the times. In the 
progress of their journey, they encountered 
many difficulties. 

Ftbrxiai~y ith, Fremont writes : " I went ahead 
early with two or three men, each with a led horse, 
to break the road. We were obliged to abandon the 
hollow entirely, and work along the mountain side, 
which was very steep, and the snow covered with an 
icy crust. We cut a footing as we advanced, and 
trampled a road through for the animals ; but occa- 
sionally one plunged outside the trail, and slided 
along the field to the bottom, a hundred yards 
below. 

" To-night we had no shelter, but we made a large 
fire around the trunk of one of the huge pines : and 
coverftig the snow with small boughs on which we 
spread our blankets, soon made ourselves comforta- 
ble. The night was very bright and clear, though 
the thermometer was only at 10°. A strong wind 
which sprang up at sundown, made it intensely cold, 
and this was one of the bitterest nights during the 
journey. 

" Two Indians joined onr party here ; and one of 
them, an old man, immediately began to harangue 
ns, saying that ourselves and animals would perish in 
the snow; and that if we would go bade, he would 
show us another and a better way acKiss the moun- 
tain. He spoke in a very loud voice, and there was 
a singular repetition of phrases and arrangement of 
words, which rendered his speech striking and not 
unmusical. 

'' We had now begun to understand some words, 
and with the aid of signs, easily comprehended the 
old man's simple idea. 'Rock upon rock — rock 
upon rock — snow upon snow — snow upon snow,' 
said he ; ' even if you get over the snow, you will 
not be able to get down fi'om the mountains.' He 
made ns the sign of precipices, and showed us how 
the feet of the horses would slip, and throw them itff 
from the narrow trails which led along their sides. 
Our Chino/ik, who comprehended even more readily 
than ourselves, and believed our situation hopeless, 
covered his head with his blanket, and began to 
weep and lament. ' I wanted to see the whites,' 
said he ; 'I came awfty from my own people to see 
the whites, and I wouldn't care to die among them ; 
but here — ' and he looked around into the cold 



night and gloomy forest, and, drawing his blank&t 
over his head, began again to lament. 

" Seated around the tree, the fire illuminating the 
rocks, and the tall bolls of the pines round about, and 
the old 'adian haranguing, we presented a group of 
very serious faces. 

February 5. — "The night had been too cold to sleep, 
and we were up very early. Our guide was standing 
by the fire with all his finery on, and seeing him 
shiver in the cold, I threw on his shoulders one of 
my blankets. We missed him a few minutes after- 
wards, and never saw him again. He had deserted. 
His bad faith and treachery were in perfect keeping 
with the estimate of Indian character, which a long 
intercourse with this people had gradually forced 
upon my mind. 

Feh-uary 6. — "Accompanied by Mr. Fitzpatrick, I 
set out to-day with a reconnoitering party, on snow- 
shoes. We marched all in single file, trampling the 
snow as heavily as we could. Crossing the open 
basin, in a march of about ten miles, we reached the 
top of one of the peaks, to the left of the pass indi- 
cated by our guide. Far below us, dimmed by the 
distance, was a large snowless valley, bounded ott 
the western side, at the distance of about a hundred 
miles, by a low range of mountains, which Carson 
recognized with delight as the mountains bordering 
the coast. 'There,' said he, 'is the little moun- 
tain—it is fifteen years ago since I saw it ; but I am 
just as sure as if I had seen it yesterday.' Betweea 
us, then, and this low coast range was the valley of 
the Sacramento, and no one who had not accompa- 
nied us through the incidents of our life for the last 
few months, could realize the delight with which at 
last we looked down upon it. At the distance of 
apparently thirty miles beyond us were distinguished 
spots of prairie; and a dark line, which could be 
traced with the glass, was imagined to be the course 
of the river; but we were evidently at a great 
height above the valley, and between us and the 
plains, extended miles of snowy fields and broken 
ridges of pine-covered mountains. 

" It was late in the day when we turned towards 
the camp, and it grew rapidly cold as it drew 
towards night. One of the men became fatigued, 
and his feet began to freeze, ajid building a fire in 
the trunk of a dry old cedai, Mr. P'itzpatrick re- 
mained with him until liis clothes could be dried, and 
he was in a condition to come on. After a day's 
march of twenty miles, we straggled into camp, one 
after another, at nightfall, the greater number ex- 
cessively fatigued, only two of the party having ever 
travelled on snow-shoife before. 

February 13.—" The meat train did not arrive this 
evening, and I gave Godey leave to kill our little dog 
(Tlamath), which he prepared in Indian fashion; 
scorching off the hiar, and washing the skin with 
soap and snow, and then cutting it up into pieces, 
which were laid on, the snow. Shortly afterwards 
the sleigh arflved vrith a supply of horse-meat, and 
we had to-night an extraordinary dinner— pea-sonp, 
mule, and dog." 

One of the men, Qharles Towns, became 
light-headed from hunger and fatigue; and 
Proveau, the favorite horse of Lieut. Fre- 
mont, grew too weak to keep- up, on the 27th 
of February, and Demsier volunteered, on tha 
29th, to bring up Proveau, but did not appear 
at camp with him that night. 

March 1, Fremont writes : "We began to be uneasy 
at Derosier's absence, fearing he might have beek 
bewildered in the woodg. Charles Towns, who haS 
not yet recovered his mind, went to swim in the 
river, as if it were summer, and the stream placid, 
when it was a cold mountain torrent foaming among 



14 



LITE OF COL. FREMONT. 



rocka. We -vrere happy to see Derosier appear in 
the evening. He came in, and sitting down by the 
fire, began to tell us where he had been. He ima- 
gined he had beea gone several days, and thought 
we were still at the camp where he had left us ; and 
we were pained to see that his mind was deranged. 
It appeared that he had been lost in the mountain, 
and hunger and fatigue, joined to weakness of body 
and fear of perishing in the mountains, had crazed 
him. The times were severe when stout men lost 
their minds from extremity of suffering — when horses 
died — and when mules and horses, ready to die of 
starvation, were killed for food. Yet there was no 
murmuring or hesitation." 

On the 6th of March, Lieut. Fremont, with 
an advance party, arrived at Sutter's Fort, on 
the Sacramento river, and were cordially wel- 
comed by Capt. Sutler. The next day, supplied 
with fresh horses and provisions, tliey returned 
to the mountains for the party left behind. 
The narrative continues: 

"On the second day, we met, a few miles below 
flie forks of the Rio de los Americanos; and a more 
forlorn and pitiable sight than they presented, can- 
not well be imagined. They were all on foot— each 
man, weak and emaciated, leading a horse or mule 
as weak and emaciated as themselves. They had 
experienced great difficulty in descending the moun- 
tains, made slippery by rains and melting snows, and 
many horses fell over precipices and were killed, and 
with some were lost the paclis they carried. 

"Out of sixty-seven horses and mules with which 
we commenced crossing the Sierra, only thirty-three 
reached the valley of Sacramento, and they only 
in a condition to be led along." 

On the 24th they resumed tlieir journey, with 
an ample stock of provisions and a large caval- 
cade of aninials, consisting of 130 horses and 
mules, and about 30 head of cattle, live of 
which were milch cows. 

Lieut. Fremont had now made a very im- 
portant addition to the geographical knowledge 
of the country, and corrected a macenal error 
of long standing. He might well reflect, as he 
once more tui-ned away from the face of civi- 
lized man, tliat if correct information of tlie 
geography of that vast region, should prove 
as valuable to otliers as it would have been to 
him, his labors, however arduous, would not 
be lost. While they were encamped near Sut- 
ter's Fort, Derosier, one of the best men, 
wandered off and has never since been heard 
of. 

They had been on their homeward journey 
a month since leaving Sutter's, when on the 
25th of April, they discovered that a number 
of tlieir horses had been driven off by a party 
of marauding Indians. Three men, Fuentes, 
Carson, and Godey, went in pursuit. Fuentes 
came back the same evening, his horse having 
given out. Carson and Godey did not return 
until they had performed some bloody work. 
The journal of the 25th says : — 

" In the afternoon of the next day, a war-hoop was 
keard, such as Indians make when returning from a 



victorious enterprise ; and soon Carson and Gfbdej 
appeared, driving before them a band of horses, 
recognized by Fuentes to be part of those they had 
lost. Two bloody scalps, dangling from the end oif 
Godey's gun, announced that they had overtaken tBa 
Indians as well as the horses. They informed us 
that after Fuentes left them, from the failure of 
his horse, they continued the pursuit alone, and 
towards night-fall entered the mountains, into ■which 
the trail led. After sunset the moon gave light, and 
they followed the trail by moonshine until late in the 
night, when it entered a narrow delile, and was difft- 
cult to follow. Afraid of losing it in the darkness of 
the defile, they tied up their horses, struck no fiie, 
and lay down to sleep in silence and in darkneas. 
Here they lay from midnight till morning. At day- 
light they resumed the pursuit, and about sunriso 
discovered the horses ; and immediately dismountrag 
and tying up their own, they crept cautiously to & 
rising ground which intervened, from the crest of 
which they perceived the encampment of four lodges 
close by. They proceeded quietly, and had got 
within thirty or forty yards of their object, when a 
movement among the horses discovered thorn to th« 
Indians ; giving the war-shout, they immediatelT 
charged into the camp, regardless of the number 
which the four lodges would imply. The Indians 
received them with a flight of arrows shot from their 
long bows, one of which passed through Godey'* 
shirt collar, barely missing the neck ; our men fired 
thpir rides upon a steady aim, and rushed in. Two 
Indians were stretched on the ground, fatally pierced 
with bullets ; the rest fled, except a lad that was 
captured. The scalps of the fallen were instantly 
strijiped off; but in the process one of them, who 
had two balls through his body, sprung to his feet- 
the blood streaming from his skinned head, and 
uttering a hideous howl. An old squaw, possibly 
his mother, stopped and looked back from the moua- 
tain-side she was climbing, threatening and lament- 
ing. The frightful spectacle appalled the stout 
hearts of our men ; but they did what humanity 
required, and quickly terminated the agonies of thd 
gory savage." 

On April 24th, Fremont was surprised by 
the sudden appearance in his camp of two Mex- 
icans, a man and a boy. Tlie boy, then a 
handsome lad of eleven years, was Pablo Her- 
nandez, who returned with Fremont, and 
afterwards lived in the family of Col. Benton^ 
at Washington. They were the only two, of 
a party of six, who had escaped from a treach- 
erous attack of Indians. On the 29tli of 
April, Capt. Fremont reached the lonely place 
where the tragedy had been enacted, and h* 
thus describes the scene : 

" The dead silence of the place was ominous ; and, 
galloping rapidly up, we found only the corpses of 
tiie two men : everything else was gone. They 
were naked, mutDated, and pierced with arrows, 
Hernandez had evidently fought, and with despera- 
tion. He lay in advance of the willow half-faced 
tent, which sheltered his family, as if he had come 
out to meet danger, and to repulse it from that asy- 
lum. One of his hands, and both his legs, had been 
cut off. Giacome, who was a large and strong-lool»- 
ing man, was lying in one of the willow shelt-'rs, 
pierced with arrows. Of the women no trace could 
be found, and it was evident they had been carried 
off captive. A little lap-dog, which had belonged to 
Pablo's mother, remained with the dead bodies, and 
was frantic with joy at seeing Pablo : he, poor child, 
was frantic with "grief ; and filled the air with lamen- 



LIFE OF CJOL. FEEMONT. 



15 



tations for his father and mofher. ' Mi padre ! Mi 
vnadre !' was his incessant cry. When we beheld 
this pitiable sight, and pictured to ourselves the fate 
of the two women, carried off by savages so brutal 
and so loathsome, all compunction for the scalped- 
ftlive Indian ceased ; and we rejoiced that Carson 
and Godey had been able to give so useful a lesson 
to these American Arabs, who lie in wait to murder 
and plunder the innocent traveller." 

On the 9th of May, Carson came to Fre- 
mont in the afternoon, and reported that 
Tabeau, who, in the morning, left his fort 
without the captain's knowledge, and rode 
back to the camp they had left, in search of a 
lame mule, had not returned. The narrative 
goes on to say : 

" "While we were speaking, a smoke rose sud- 
denly from the cotton wood grove below, which 
plainly told us what had befallen him ; it was raised 
to inform the surrounding Indians that a blow had 
been struck, and to tell them to be on their guard. 
Carson, with several men well mounted, was instant- 
ly sent down the river, but returned in the night 
without tidings of the missing man. They went to 
the camp we had left, but neither he nor the mule 
was there. Searching down the river, they found 
the tracks of the mule, evidently driven along by 
Indians, whose tracks were on each side of those 
made by the animal. After going several miles, they 
came to the mule itself, standing in some bushes, 
mortally wounded in the side by an arrow, and left 
to die, that he might be afterwards butchered for 
food. They also found, in another place, as they 
were hunting about on the ground for Tabeau's 
tracks, something that looked like a little puddle of 
blood, but which the darkness prevented them from 
verifying. With these details they returned to our 
camp, and their report saddened all our hearts. 

May 10. — " This morning as soon as there was light 
enough to follow tracks, I set out myself, with Mr. 
Fitzpatrick and several men, in search of Tabeau. 
We went to the spot where the appearance of pud- 
dled blood had been seen ; and this, we saw at once, 
had been the place where he fell and died. Blood 
upon the leaves and beaten down bushes, showed 
tliat he had got his wound about twenty paces from 
where he fell, and that he had struggled for his life. 
He had probably been shot through the lungs with 



an arrow. From the place where he lay and bled, it 
could be seen that he had been dragged to the river 
bank, and thrown into it. No vestige of what had 
belonged to him could be found, except a fragment 
of his horse equipment — horse, gun, clothes — all be- 
came the prey of these Arabs of the New World. 

" Tabeau had been one of our best men, and his un- 
happy death spread a gloom over our party. Men, 
who have gone through such dangers and suffering* 
as we had seen, become like brothers, and feel each . 
other's loss. To defend and avenge each other, is 
the deep feeling of all. We wished to avenge hia 
death ; but the condition of our horses, languishing 
for grass and repose, forbade an expedition into un- 
known mountains. We knew the tribe who had 
done the mischief — the same which had been insult- 
ing our camp. They knew what they deserved, and 
had the discretion to show themselves to us no more. 
The day before, they infested our camp ; now, not 
one appeared ; nor did we ever afterwards see but 
one who even belonged to the same tribe, and he at 
a distance." 

On May 23d, Trangois Badeau, who had been 
^v^th Fremont during both his expeditions, 
and had always been one of his most faithful 
and efficient men, was killed in drawing 
towards him a gun by the muzzle; the hanv 
mer being caught, discharged the gun, driving 
the ball through his head. 

After an absence of fourteen months, during 
which, with all their exposure, no case of 
sickness had ever occurred among them, Col. 
Fremont and his party arrived at St. Louis on 
the 6th day of August, 1844. Important ad- 
ditions to the treasures of geograi)}iical sci- 
ence had been made by this exfiedirion. The 
Great Basin, Great Salt Lakv, Little Salt Lake, 
and the Sierra Nevada Mountains had been ia 
part developed. Tlie fact that no rivei-u 
issued from the Great Basin had been ascer- 
tained; and the non-existence of the rivejr 
Buenaventura, long laid down on all the 
maps, and even on the manuscript map of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, a.s located by their 
own hunters, had been conclusively estab- 
lished. 



CHAPTER lY. 



Ihird Erpedition — First Raising of the U. S. Flag in California — Journey to Oregon — Orders received in the Mountalna 
by hand of Capt. Gillespie — Camp attacked by Tlamath Indians in the night— Three men slaiu—Kevenge— Their Vil- 
lage Destroyed— Fremont's Favorite Horse, Sacramento — Saving of Carson's Life — Extracts from Mr. Marcy's Report — 
Two Hundred of Castro's Horses Captured— Samona Surprised and Taken— Fremont appointed Governor of California 
—Reliance of the Americans upon Col. Fremont^-Arrest of Pico— Sentenced to be Shot— Fremont Pardons him— Rid« 
of Eight Hundred Miles in Eight Days— Desperate Encounter with Grizily Bears— Twelve KiUed— Capitulation of Co*- 
Miga — Fremont's Proclamation of Peace. 



IN" January, 1845, Fremont, on the recom- 
mendation of Gen. Scott, in a special re- 
port, was promoted by a brevet commission of 
First Lieutenant and a brevet commission of 
Captain of the corps of Topographical Engi- 
neers at the same time. 

In the s]-)ring of that year, he obtained or- 
ders to conduct a third expedition, which com- 



prehended in its object a more thorough ex- 
ploration of the Great Basin, of whiclt he had 
already obtained considerable knowledge, and 
of California and Oregon, aa well as the dis- 
covery of a new and shorter route from th© 
Western base of tlie Rocky Mountains to the 
mouth of the Columbia River. 

Hunger, thirst, cold, the loss of cattle, the 



16 



LIFB OF OOL. FREMONT. 



tomahawk of the Indian, he was destined to 
encounter again, as he had done in his two 
previons expeditions. Through all obstacles, 
he again persevered, and once more reached 
the Tacific coast. 

Oapt. Fremont was aware, when he left the 
United States, that a war with Mexico was 
probable. On that account he took great 
pains, when he arrived in California — then a 
department of Mexico — to apprise Manuel 
Castro, the commanding general, of the peace- 
ful nature of his mission. He requested liberty 
to winter in the country. It was granted. 
Judge of his surprise at receiving shortly 
afterwards from Castro, an insolent and per- 
emptory order to quit the country forthwith, 
accompanied by a threat of destruction in case 
of non-compliance. Fremont had already lo- 
cated the South Pass across the Eocky Moun- 
tains ; he had ascended a peak where never 
human feet trod before ; he had made many 
important discoveries in the geograi>hy of the 
West : but he liad never yet found out the way 
to run. lie climbed up with his men to the 
summit of Hawks' Peak, a mountain overlook- 
ing the Salinas Plains, which lie between that 
and Monterey. 

A breast- work was hastily thrown up, and 
the United States flag was hoisted for the first 
time in California. From this place he wrote 
the following note to Mr. Larkin, U. S. Con- 
sul at Monterey : 

" March 10, 1846. 

" My Dear Sir : — I this moment received your let- 
ters, and without waiting to read them, acknowledge 
the receipt, which the courier requires, immediately. 

"I am making myself as strong as possible, in the 
intention that if we are unjustly attacked, we will 
fight to extremity, and refuse quarter trusting to our 
country to avenge our death. No one has reached 
our camp, and from the heights we are able to see 
the troops (with the glass) mustering at St. John's 
and preparing cannon. I thank you for your kind- 
ness and good wishes, and would write more at 
length as to my intentions, did I not fear that my 
letter would be intercepted. We have in no wise 
done wrong to the people or the authorities of the 
country, and if we are hemmed in and assaulted here, 
we will die every man of ua, under the flag of our 
country. 

"Very truly yours. 

"J. C. FREMONT." 

Captain Fremont remained on the Peak till 
the evening of the fourth day, when it being 
clear that Castro would not attack him in his 
commanding position, — certainly not without 
powerful accessions to his own strength, already 
at least five hundred men — and knowing that 
it was impossible to obtain provisions for his 
support, he witlidrew, crossed over to the San 
Joaquin Valley, and slowly and, to use his 
own language, " growlingly" pursued his jour- 
ney, by the way of Sacramento Valley, up into 
the mountain regions of Oregon. 

Tlie next incident of particular interest which 



occurred to Capt. Fremont, is thus narrated ISj 
Col. Benton : 

" In the first week of May lie was at the north end 
of the great Tlamath lake, and in Oregon — the lake 
being cut near its south end by the parallel of 42 de- 
grees north latitude. On the 8th day of that month 
a strange sight presented itself^almost a startling 
apparition — two men riding up and penetrating a 
region which few ever approached without paying 
toll of life or blood. They proved to be two of Mr. 
Fremont's old voyageurs, and quickly told their story. 
They were part of a guard of six men conducting a 
United States oflicer, who was on his trail with dis- 
patches from Washington, and whom they had left 
two days back, while they came on to give notice of 
his approach, and to ask that assistance might be 
sent him. They themselves had only escaped the 
Indians by the switl.ness of their horses. It was a 
case in which no time was to be lost, nor a mistake 
made. Mr. Fremont determined to go himself; and 
taking ten picked men, four of them Delaware In- 
dians, he took down the western shore of the lake on 
the morning of the 9th (the direction the ofiicer was 
to come), and made a ride of sixty miles without a 
halt. But to meet men, and not to miss them, was 
the difficult point in this trackless region. It was not 
the case of a high road, where all travellers must 
meet in passing each other : at intervals there were 
places — defiles, or camping grounds — where both 
parties must pass ; and watching for these, he came 
to one in the afternoon, and decided that, if the party 
was not killed, it must he there that night. He halted 
and encamped ; and, as the sun was going down, 
had the inexpressible satisfaction to see the fom- men 
approaching. The officer proved to be a lieutenant 
of the United States Marines, who had been de- 
spatched from Washington, the November previous, 
to make his way by Vera Cruz, the City of Mexico, 
and Mazatlan, to Monterey, in Upper California, 
deliver despatches to the United States consul there, 
and then find Mr. Fremont, wherever he should be. 
His despatches for Mr. Fremont were only a letter 
of introduction from the Secretary of State (Mr. 
Buchanan), and some letters and slips of newspa- 
pers from Senator Benton and his family, and some 
verbal communications from the Secretary of State. 
The verbal communications were that Mr. Fremont 
should watch and counteract any foreign scheme on 
California, and conciliate the good will of the inhabi- 
tants towards the United States. Upon this intima- 
tion of the government's wishes, Mr. Fremont turned 
back from Oregon, in the edge of which he then was, 
and returned to California. The letter of introduction 
was in the common form, that it might tell nothing 
if it fell into the hands of foes, and signified nothing 
of itself; but it accredited the bearer, and gave the 
stamp of authority to what he communicated; and 
upon this Mr. Fremont acted: for it was not to be 
supposed that Lieutenant Gillespie had been sent so 
far, and through so many dangers, merely to deliver 
a common letter of introduction on the shores of the 
Tlamath lake." 

That niglit a war party of Tlamath Indians 
who had followed Gillespie's trail, attacked 
the camp, and killed three of Fremont's best 
men — one of them a Delaware Indian. One 
bold young Flaraath chief paid the penalty of 
his life on the spot. He fell at the beginning 
of the fight, leaving his quiver full of unspent 
arrows. 

Capt. Fremont now turned back to meet the 
reinainder of his men, and they encamped to- 
gether that night. He told them that the 



LIFE OF OOL. FREMONT. 



17 



death of their friends who had fallen must be 
avenged ; and the following morning he re- 
turned up the West side of the lake, towards 
the north end, to the principal village of the 
Tlamaths. His Delawares had painted theni- 
gelves black, in sign of mourning at the loss of 
one of their tribe who had been slain, and of 
the vengeance. Capt. Fremont attacked the 
Tlamaths, destroyed their village, and after a 
considerable number of them had been killed, 
the rest tied. 

Capt. Fremont, accompanied by his own 
party and Gillespie's, now retraced his steps 
towards California. At this time he was 
mounted on a noble iron-grey horse, named 
Sacramento, which he had received as a pre- 
sent from Capt. Sutter, on his second expe- 
dition, rode most of the way as far as Kfen- 
tucky, and left to summer on Col. Benton's 
farm. Tliis fine animal had borne his owner 
a large part of this journey out. He was high- 
spirited, sure-footed, and an almost miraculous 
leaper. Two days after the massacre, as Capt. 
Fremont was riding at full speed abreast Avith 
Kit Carson and one or two others, his com- 
panions crowded him directly on to the top of 
a large, fallen tree. Carson shouted : " Look 
out for a fall!" But, with an incredible jump, 
Sacramento cleared the enormous tree top, and, 
greeted by a cry of applause from the men, 
SAviftly flew on. They were reconnoitring for 
a body of Indians who were reported approach- 
ing. A quarter of a mile fartlier on their way, 
the mettle of the brave courser was put to a 
ditferent test. They were still beside the 
Tlamath lake, when they suddenly came upon 
a •••mall party of Indians. Fremont saw a 
Ravage with his bow drawn to the arrow's 
head, and a deadly aim at Carson, who was 
standing only ten feet distant, with his rifle 
levelled at the Indian's head. Carson was 
pulling at the trigger, when the quick com- 
prehension of Capt. Fremont detected that his 
gun was only half cocked. A man a little in 
front of Fremont apparently wavered in reso- 
lution. " Get out of the way !" shouted Fre- 
mont. The man turned aside. Sacramento 
dashed on. Fremont's rifle was brought to 
bear in an instant, and almost the same second 
■with its discharge, the hoofs of the courser 
trampled the Tlamatli in the dust. The balls 
from the rifles of the Delawares pierced his 
body, and before the rider of Sacramento could 
turn round, he heard the heavy war club of 
Sagliundai, the chief, break through his skull. 
When he turned back, the fierce hand of a 
Delaware held dangling aloft the gory scalp of 
the Tlamath Indian. " Them two," says Car- 
son, " Sacramento and the Colonel, saved my 
life that day." 

Sacramento afterwards escaped into a drove 
of wild horses, and loving freedom like his 
master, could never be re-taken. 



The annual report for 1845, of the Hon. Wil- 
liam L. Marcy, then Secretary of War, now 
Secretary of State, briefly chronicles as fol- 
lows — quoting from this point — some of the 
achievements of Col. Fremont in the conquest 
of California : 



[From the Anual Report of the Secretary of War, Decem- 
ber 5, 1846.J 

[extract.] 

War Department, Dec. 5, 1846. 
********* 

At the same time, information reached him that 
General Castro, in addition to his Indian allies, was 
advancing in person against him, with artillery and 
cavalry, at the head of four or five hundred men; 
that they were passing around the head of the Bay 
of San Francisco to a rendezvous on the north side 
of it, and that the American settlers in the valley of 
the Sacramento were comprehended in the scheme 
of destruction meditated against his own party. 

Under these circumstances, he determined to turn 
upon his Mexican pursuers, and seek safety both for 
his own party and the American settlers, not merely 
in the defeat of Castro, but in the total overthrow of 
the Mexican authority in California, and the establish- 
ment of an independent government in that exten- 
sive department. It was on the 6th of June, and 
before the commencement of the war betweeit the 
United States and Mexico could have there been 
known, that this resolution was taken ; and by the 
5th of July, it was carried into etfect by a series of 
rapid attacks, by a small body of adventitrous men, 
under the conduct of an intrepid leader, quick to 
perceive and able to direct the proper measures for 
accomplishing such a daring enterprise. 

On the 11th of June, a convoy of 200 horses for 
Castro's camp, with an officer and 14 men, were sur- 
prised and captiu-ed by twelve of Fremont's party. 
On the 15th, at daybreak, the military post of Sanoma 
was also surprised and taken, with nine brass cannon, 
two hundred and fifty stand of muskets, and several 
officers, and some men and munitions of war. 

Leaving a small garrison at Sanoma, Colonel Fre- 
mont went to the Sacramento to rouse the American 
settlers ; but scarcely had he arrived there, when an 
express reached him from the garrison at Sanoma, 
with information that Castro's whole force was cross- 
ing the bay to attack that place. This intelligence 
was receivefl in the afternoon of the 23d of June, 
while he was on the American fork of the Sacra- 
mento, eighty miles from the little garrison at Sano- 
ma; and at two o'clock on the morning of the 25th, 
he arrived at that place with ninety riflemen from 
the American settlers in that valley. The enemy had 
not yet appeared. Scouts were sent out to recon- 
noitre, and a party of twenty fell in with a squadron 
of seventy dragoons (all of Castro's force which had 
crossed the bay), attacked and defeated it, killing 
and wounding five, without harm to themselves; the 
Mexican commander, De la Torre, barely escaping 
with the loss of his transport boats and nine pieces 
of brass artillery spiked. 

The country north of the Bay of San Francisco 
being cleared of the enemy, Colonel Fremont re- 
turned to Sanoma on the evening of the -ith of July, 
and, on the morning of the 5th, called the people 
together, explained to them the condition of things 
in the province, and recommended an immediate 
declaration of independence. The declaration was 
made, and he was selected to take the chief direction 
of affairs. 

The attack on Castro was the next object. He 
was at Santa Clara, an entrenched post on the upper 
or south side of the Bay of San Francisco, with four 
2 



18 



LIFE OF COL. FREMONT. 



hundred men and two pieces of field artillery. A 
circuit of more than a hundred miles must be tra- 
versed to reach him. On the 6th of July the pursuit 
was commenced, by a body of one hundred and sixty 
mounted riflemen, commanded by Colonel Fremont 
in person, who, in three days, arrived at the Ameri- 
can settlements on the Rio de los Americanos. Here 
he learned that Castro had abandoned Santa Clara, 
and was retreating south towards Ciudad de los An- 
geles (the city of the Angels), the seat of the Gover- 
nor-General of the Califjornias, and distant four hun- 
dred miles. It was instantly resolved on to pursae 
him to that place. At the moment of departure, the 
gratifying intelligence was received that war with 
Mexico had commenced ; that Monterey had been 
taken by our naval force, and the flag of the United 
States there raised on the 7th of July ; and that the 
fleet would co-operate in the pursuit of Castro and 
his forces. The flag of independence was hauled 
down, and that of the United States hoisted, amidst 
the hearty greetings and to the great joy of the Ame- 
rican settlers and the forces under the command of 
Colonel Fremont. 

The combined pursuit was rapidly continued; and 
on the 12th of August, Commodore Stockton and 
Colonel Fremont, with a detachment of marines from 
the squadron ami some riflemen, entered the city of 
the Angels, without resistance or objection ; the Go- 
vernor-General Pico, the Commandant-General Cas- 
tro, and all the Mexican authorities, having fled and 
dispersed. Commodore Stockton took possession of 
the whole country as a conquest of the United States, 
and appointed Colonel Fremont Governor, under the 
law of nations ; to assume the functions of that office 
when he .'-hould return to the squadron. 

Thus, in the short space of sixty days from the first 
decisive movement, this conquest was achieved, by a 
small body of men, to an extent beyond their own 
expectation ; for the Mexican authorities proclaimed 
it a conquest, not merely of the northern part, but 
of the whole province of the Californias. 

The Commandant-General, Castro, on the 9th of 
August, from his camp at the Mesa, and next day 
"on the road to Sonora," announced this result to 
the people, together with tlie actual flight and dis- 
persion of the former authorities ; and, at the same 
time, he oflBcially communicated the fact of the con- 
quest to the French, English and Spanish consuls in 
California; and, to crown the whole, the official pa- 

Eer of the Mexican government, on the IGth of Octo- 
er, in laying these official communications before 
the public, introduced them with the emphatic decla- 
ration, " The loss of the Californias is consummated." 
The whole province was yielded up to the United 
States, and is now in our miUtary occupancy. * * * 

W. L. MARCy. 
To THB President of thk Ukitsd States. 

On Fremont's retui*n to the Sacramento 
Valley, he encamped at the Three Buttes, near 
the junction of the Yuba and Feather rivers. 
The Buttes are three lofty mountain peaks, 
rising out of tlie middle of a vast plain, famous 
landmarks in California. Here he was joined 
by the American settlers from all parts of the 
Valley. They had heard of his danger ; of his 
resolute action at Hawks' Peak, and now that 
the anger and resentment of the Mexican 
General were directed equally against them, 
they were eager to greet Fremont as their 
champion and leader. " The news travelled," 
wrote one of them, " witli all the speed of the 
swiftest horses, among all the Americans in a 
scope of country 160 miles in extent, in 24 
hours, and from every direction we rushed to 



the assistance of Captain Fremont, imder the 
impression that if he was defeated, we should 
be taken at our homes, as reported." 

On the 27th of October, at Monterey, Fre- 
mont received a commission of Lieutenant- 
Colonel of a rifle regiment, in the army of the 
United States, signed by President Polk, dated 
the 29th of tlie May previous. 

The capture of Sonoma was achieved by a 
detachment of thirty men dispatched by Col. 
Fremont for that purpose. The day following, 
a portion of this detachment appeared in front 
of Col. Fremont's encampment, on the bank 
of the American river, bringing with them 
Vallejo, the Mexican general commanding in 
the North, whom they had taken prisoner at 
the surprise of Sonoma, and two other officers. 
The general stepped forward and tendered to 
Col. Fremont his sword. The Colonel courte- 
ously declined to receive it, in consideration 
of the superior age of the Mexican general, and 
of his own desire to concihate as far as pos- 
sible the Californians. He sent Gen. Vallejo 
to Sutter's Fort, where he remained several 
months a prisoner. 

On the 1-ith of December, 1846, at San 
Louis Obispo, Don Jose Pico was arrested for 
breaking his parole. He was tried by a Court 
Martial and sentenced to be sliot. The next 
morning Avas to witness his execution. His 
wife and cliildren supplicated, in the bitterest 
agony, tliat his life might be spared. After 
mature deliberation, Colonel Fremont decided 
to grant their request. Just before the hour 
appointed for his execution, this pleasing in- 
telligence was communicated to him. He was 
overwhelmed. He broke forth into the most 
entlnisiastic expressions of gratitude towards 
Col. Fremont. His old life, he said, was gone; 
Col. Fremont had given him a new life; and 
he vowed for tlie future, the strictest fidelity. 
Subsequently, in his own defence before a 
Court Martial, Col. Fremont thus siioke of this 
act of pardon : 

" That pardon had its influence on all the subsequent 
events ; Don Jose was the cousin of Don Andreas 
Pico, against whom I was going, and was married to 
a lady of the Cavillo family ; many hearts were con- 
quered the day he was pardoned, and his own, above 
all. Don Jose Pico attached himself to my person, 
and remained devoted, and faithful under trying cir- 
cumstances." 

In March, 1847, Col. Fremont accomplished 
a ride on liorseback which seems almost in- 
credible ; but the California papers of that 
date give the full particulars of it. He rode 
from Los Angeles to Monterey and back 
again, a distance of eight hundred miles, inside 
of eight days — all stoppages included. Sub- 
sequent measurement has proved the actual 
distance to be considerably greater even than 
it was there estimated. 

In the autumn of 1846, Col. Fremont was 
on his way up from Los Angeles to San Fra]> 



20 



LIFE OF COL. EREMONT. 



Cisco, to receive his commission as Governor 
of California, from Commodore Stockton. 
He had thirty-six men with him. They were 
in Sahnas Valley. In the cool of the morn- 
ing, a little after sunrise, Col. Fremont and 
four or five others were riding leisurely along, 
a little ahead of the rest of the party, when 
tliey discovered thi*ee young grizzly bears up 
some oak trees, apparently eating acorns. 
There happened to be at hand, leading in 
the direction of the trees, and past them, a 
deep, ditch-like gully. They all jumped otf 
their horses and ran along up the gully 
towards the trees. As they approached, the 
young bears discovered them, and seeming 
greatly agitated, commenced running down 
the trees, and then up again. Col. Fremont 
and his men were at a loss to understand 
the meaning of this. As they raised them- 
selves up to shoot they were in their turn 
somewhat surprised at observing four or five 
overgrown old bears around the foot of tiie 
nearest tree. A bear has a quick eye, and 
the discovery was nmtual. The agitation of 
the young bears was explained at once. The 
large ones were too heavy to climb, and it 
appears, had sent up the young ones, who 
were industriously engaged in breaking off 
branches, and throwing them down with the 
acorns to tlieir parents, who drove them 
back up tlie trees as fast as they came 
down, not then liaving perceived the cause 
of their alarm. It was a case now of catch- 
ing not merely a Tartar, but a good many of 
them. Fremont and his companions instantly 
charged upon the large bears. The firing 
became so rapid that the party in the rear 
rode up, thinking they were engaged with the 
Spaniards. Ee-inforcements came in on all 
sides. The bears gathered about as fast as 
the men. The whole river bottom was cover- 
ed with branches of willow trees, with oi)en 
spaces and water holes scattered amongst 
tliem. As the men charged upon the bears, 
a tall Frenchman fell over a large cub, which 
was trying to hide itself, lie screamed, and 
the bear screamed. As t\© men heard him, 
they raised a hearty shout of laughter. The 
men were now scattered through the willows 
in every direction, and every bear had a 
chance, for it was a free fight. The huge 
creatures repeatedly attempted to charge upon 
their assailants, but the fire of so many rifles 
at once, proved too lieavy for them. At last, 
they retired^ leaving twelve dead upon the 
field. In the heat of the encounter, three or 
four bears had started to charge upon a group 
of seven or eight men, m which was Col. 
Fremont. In the suddenness of firing, the 
men hardly looked to see who was in front of 
their guns. Jerome Davis, who had just 
finished loading, and jumped up to fire, threw 
his head directly in front of the muzzle of Mr. 
King's rifle, as King was puUii^g the trigger. 



Fremont grabbed Davis by the collar, and 
jerked him aside, just in season to save Ma i 
head. 

The grizzly bear is, perhaps, the most sav 
age and ferocious animal in the world. They 
are very tough, and tenacious of life. A sin- 
gle ball rarely kills one. When wounded, 
they never attempt to fly, but invariably turn 
upon the hunter. If they can catch the direc- 
tion, either by the report of the gun or the 
sight of smoke, they always make for it 
instantly, and as they can run faster than a 
man, there is no chance of escape, frequently, 
but in the trees, which, as already remarked, 
the old ones are too heavy to climb. It is 
very dangerous for one man alone to attack a 
grizzly bear. 

Although, in this instance, no quarter was 
shown to the four-legged enemies thus unex- 
pectedly encountered, a different policy was 
generally adopted towards other foes. 

The negotiation of peace in California was 
greatly facilitated by the strict regard for the 
riglits of the natives who remained peaceable, 
which Col. Fremont invariably enforced. He 
early gave notice that, while he would destroy 
every house which he found deserted, no man 
who remained quietly at home should be 
injured or disturbed. The Califoruians, after 
a while, conceived a very high regard for liim, 
and, as soon as hostilities terminated, they 
were singing his praises in the Spanish laur 
guage. 

The capitulation of Couenga, which put 
an end to the war, occurred on the 13th of 
January, 1847. The following proclamation 
was issued by Col. Fremont : 

"a circulak. 

" The peace of the country being restored, and 
future tranquillity vouchsafed hj a treaty made and 
entered into by commissioners respectively appointed 
by the properly authorized California officers, on the 
one hand, and by myself, as military commandant of 
the United States forces in the district of California, 
on the other; by which a civil government is to take 
place of the military, and exchange of all prisoners, 
&c., &c., forthwith ensure to the end that order, and 
a wholesome civil police, should obtain throughout 
the land. A copy of which said treaty will be imme- 
diately published in the California newspaper pub- 
lished at Monterey. 

"Therefore, in virtue of the aforesaid treaty, aa 
well as the functions that in me rest as civil Go- 
vernor of California, I do hereby proclaim order and 
peace restored to the country, and require the imme- 
diate release of all prisoners, the return of the civil 
officers to their appropriate duties, and as strict an 
obedience of the military to the civil authority as is 
consistent with the security of peace, and the rmSt- 
tenance of good order where troops are garrisoned. 

" Done at the capitol of the Territory of California, 
temporarily seated at the Ciudad de los Angeles, thia 
22d day of January, A.D., 1847. 

"J. C. FREMONT. 

"Governor and Chtnmander-in- Chief of California. 

" Witness. — Wm. H. Russell, 
"Seoretari/ of Siaie." 



LITE OF COL. FKEMONT. 



21 



CHAPTER Y. 



Arrest of Col. Fremont— Trial before a Court-Martial — Hia Defence— Oouviotion— Resigns his Commission. 



AS Scott came home after his brilliant vic- 
tories in Mexico, so Fremont returned 
from the conquest of California, under arrest ! 

Gen. Kearney and Oonimodore Stockton 
quarrelled about their respective rank and 
authority. Both required obedience to their 
orders from Ool. Fremont. He could go as 
fast and as far a3 any man in one direction ; 
but he could not move two vyays at the same 
time. The consequence was, that, although 
he had served his country faithfully, and had 
achieved a great conquest, he was now placed 
in jeopardy, not of the loss of his commission 
only, but of his life also ! 

The court-martial for his trial assembled in 
Wasliiugton in January, 184:8. 

Before the court Ool. Fi-emont stood charged 
with, 1. Mutiny; 2. Disobedience of orders; 

3. CONDUOT PREJUDICIAL TO GOOD ORDER 
AND DISCIPLINE. 

After stating to the court that his case was 
one whicli required "justice and not kind- 
ness," Col. Fremont proceeded to say : 

" A. subordinate in rank, as in the contest, long 
and secretly marked out for prosecution by the com- 
manding general, assailed in newspaper publications 
when three thousand miles distant, and standing for 
more than two months before this court, to hear 
all that could be sworn against my private honor as 
well as against my official conduct, I come at last to 
the right to speak for myself. 

" I ask this court to believe that the preservation 
of a comraissioa is no object of my defence. It came 
to me, as did those which preceded it, without ask- 
ing, either by myself or by any friend in my behalf. 
But I have a name which was without a blemish be- 
fore I received that commission ; and that nagie it is 
my intention to defend." 

Goaded by persecution to the necessity of 
referring to his own exploits, he does it with 
characteristic modesty and reserve. He finds 
occasion, as he proceeds, to contrast the valor 
of his men with the ingratitude and neglect 
which had been their oidy compensation, and 
his simple narrative flashes into burning elo- 
quence : 

"On Christmas day, 1846," he says, "we strug- 
gled on the Santa Barbara Mountain in a tempest of 
chilling rains and winds, in which a hundred horses 
perished, but the men stood to it, and I mention it to 
iheir honor. They deserve that mention, for they 
are not paid yet." 

Unnecessary flestruotion of property and of 
life has too often marked the progress of the 
conquering hero. Tiie sublime spectacle of 
courage and humanity walking hand in hand, 
is not the usual characteristic of war. Col. 
Fremont never for a moment forgot that con- 
quest, and not carnage, was the great object to 



be achieved. " A corps of observation," he 
remarks, " of some fifty or a hundred horse- 
men, galloped about us, without doing or re- 
ceiving harm; for it did not come within my 
policy to have any of them killed." His was 
the skill and the glory finally to obtain a deci- 
sive victory without bloodshed. This achieve- 
ment and its valuable results, he thus briefly 
sets forth before the court : 

"We entered the plain of Couenga, occupied by 
the enemy in considerable force, and I sent in a sum- 
mons to them to lay down their arras, or fight at 
once. The chiefs desired a parley with me in per- 
son. I went alone to see them (Don Jose Pico only 
being with me). They were willing to capitulate to 
me ; the terms were agreed upon. Commissionera 
were sent out on both sides to put it into form. It 
received the sanction of the governor and the com- 
mander-in-chief, Commodore Stockton, and was re- 
ported to the Government of the United States. It 
was the capitulation of Couenga. It put an end to 
the war, and to the feelings of war. It tranquillized 
the country, and gave safety to every American from 
the day of its conclusion. 

" My march from Monterey to Los Angeles, which 
we entered on the Ulh of January, was a subject for 
gratulation. A march of four hundred miles through 
an insurgent country, without spilling a drop o'f 
blood — conquering by clemency and justice^and so 
gaining the hearts of all that, until troubles came on 
from a new source, I could have gone back, alone 
and unarmed, upon the trail of my marcli^ trasting 
for life and bread to those alone among whom I had 
marched as conqueror, and whom I have been repre- 
sented as plundering and oppressing [" 

He finished his defence as follows : 

" My acts in California have all been with high 
motives, and a desire for the public service. My 
scientific labors did something to open California to 
the knowledge of my countrymen ; its geography 
had been a sealed book. My military operations 
were conquests without bloodshed ; my civil admi- 
nistration was for the public good. I offer Califor- 
nia, during my administration, for comparison with 
the most tranquil portions of the United States; I 
offer it in contrast to the condition of NevT Mexico 
during the same time. I prevented civil war against 
Governor Stockton, by refusing to join General 
Kearney against him; I arrested civil war against 
myself, by consenting to be deposed — offering at the 
same time to resign my place of lieuteuaut-colonel in 
the army. 

" I have been brought as a prisoner and a criminal 
from that country. I could return to it, after this 
trial is over, without rank or guards, and without 
molestation from the people, except to be impor- 
tuned for the money which the government owes 
them. 

" I am now ready to receive the sentence of the 
court." 

Of course Ool. Fremont was convicted. The 
spirit of persecution which could arraign him 
under such circumstances, took care to secure 
a verdict of guilty. President Polk expressed 
the opinion that the charge of mutiny was 



LIFE OF COL. FREMONT. 



Hot sustained; and remitted the sentence of 
dismissal from the service. But Ool. Fremont 
immediately resigned his commission. After 
a long delay and a second demand from him, 



the resignation was accepted, Fremont' did 

not want clemency; he wanted only justice, 
and was willing to wait calmly and patiently 
till it should come. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Fourth Expedition— Misled by his Guide— Terrible Sufferings— Loss of Animals and Men— Arrival In California— 
Engages in Gold Digging— Helps to make California a Free State — Elected to the United States Senate, 



FREMONT was now his own man ; and he 
Avas the same in spite of the persecutions 
■which he had endured, with his spirit un- 
broken, and his resolution unsubdued. 

Ab early as the expeditions in wliich he ac- 
companied Mr. Nicollet, Mr. Fremont con- 
ceived the idea of a railroad to the Pacific. 
He saw the grand opening for trade in that 
direction, and the importance of improved 
facihties for carr3nng it on. On his first visit 
to California, he had determined to make that 
eountry his future home. He now devoted 
himself anew, without the aid of government, 
to developing the practicability of a i-ailroad 
route from the eastern to the western side of 
the continent. 

On the 19th of October, 1848, Mr. Fremont 
started on liis fourth expedition. This was 
fitted out on the frontiers of Missouri. Some 
friends of Ool. Fremont in St. Louis, prompt- 
ed partly by tlieir interest in a railroad to the 
Pacific, and partly by a desire to manifest 
their disap])robation of the result of the Court 
Martial, defrayed for the time being, the ex- 
pense, which ultimately fell chiefly upon Mr. 
Fremont himself. 

Col. Fremont now set out for California as 
an emigrant, having made up his mind fully 
to cast his lot in that State, and he projected 
this fourth expedition, principally to ascertain 
whether the snows formed an impracticable 
barrier to railroad travel in the mountain re- 
gions in the winter. Mrs. Fremont accom- 
panied him into what is now Kansas Territory. 
A domestic affliction occurred at the com- 
mencement of the journey, which added to 
the sadness inseparable from such a parting. 
On their way up the river, above St. Louis, 
they lost one of their children, an infant 
boy. 

Of the hardships and sufferings to which 
Ool. Fremont was subjected, before he reach- 
ed New Mexico, a vivid idea may be formed 
from the following extracts of a letter to his 
wife: 

Taos, New Mexico, Jantiury 2T, 1S49. 

Mr VERT DEAR WiFE : 

I write to you from the house of our good 
friend Carson. 

***** « HI 

Former letters have made you acquainted with our 



journey so far as Bent's Fort, and from report yxDu 
will have heard the circumstances of our departure 
from the Upper Pueblo of the Arkansas. We left 
that place about the 25th of November, with up- 
wards of a hundred good mules and one hundred and 
thirty bushels of shelled corn, intended to support 
our animals across the snow of the high mountain^ 
and down to the lower parts of the Grand River tri- 
butaries, where usually the snow forms no obstacla 
to winter travelling. At the Pueblo, 1 had engaged 
as a guide an old trapper, well known as " Bill Wii- 
bams," and who had spent some twenty-five years 
of his life in trapping various parts of the Rocky 
Mountains. The error of our journey was committed 
in engaging this man. He proved never to have in 
the least known, or entirely to have forgotten, th« 
whole region of country through which we were to 
pass. We occupied more than half a month in 
making the journey of a few days, blundering a tor- 
tuous way through deep snow which already began 
to choke up the passes, for which we were obliged 
to waste time in searching. About the 11th Decem- 
ber we found ourselves at the north of the Del Norte 
Cafion, where that river issues from the St. John's 
Mountain, one of the highest, most rugged and im- 
practicable of all the Rocky Mountain ranges, inao- 
cessible to trappers and hunters even in the summer 
time. Across the point of this elevated range our 
guide conducted us, and having still great contidence 
in his knowledge, we pressed onwards with fatal re- 
solution. Even along the river bottoms the snow 
was already belly deep for the mules, frequently 
snowing in the valley and almost constantly in the 
mountains. The cold was extraordinary ; at the 
warmest hours of the day (between one and two) 
the thermometer (Fahrenheit) standing in the shade 
of only a tree trunk at zero ; the day sunshiny, with 
a moderate breeze. We pressed up towards the sum- 
mit, the snow deepening ; and in four or five days 
reached the naked ridges which lie above the tin*- 
bered country, and which form the dividing grounds 
between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans. Along these naked ridges, it storms nearly 
all winter, and the winds sweep across them with re- 
morseless fury. On our first attempt to cross, w« 
encountered a pouderie (dry snow driven thick 
through the air by violent wind, and in which objects 
are visible only at a short distance), and were driven 
back, having some ten or twelve men variously 
frozen, face, hands or feet. The guide came nigh 
being frozen to death here, and dead mules were 
already lying about the fires. Meantime, it snowed 
steadily. The next day we made mauls, and beating 
a road or trench through the snow, crossed the crest 
in defiance of the pouderie, and encamped immediate- 
ly below in the edge of the timber. The trail showed 
as if a defeated party had passed by ; pack-saddles 
and packs, scattered articles of clothing, and dead 
mules strewed along. A continuance of stormy 
weather paralyzed all movement. We were encamp- 
ed somewhere about 12,000 feet above the sea. 
Westward, the country was buried in deep snow. It 
was impossible to advance, and to turn back was 



LIFE OF COL. FEEMONT. 



23 



equally impracticable. We were overtaten by sud- 
den and inevitable ruin. It bo happened that the 
only places where any grass could be had were the 
extreme summit of the ridges, where the sweeping 
wmds kept the rocky ground bare and the snow 
could not lie. Below these, animals could not get 
about, the snow being deep enough to bury them. 
Here, therefore, in the full violence of the storms we 
were obliged to keep our animals. They could not 
be moved either way. It was instantly apparent 
that we should lose every animal. 

I determined to recross the mountain more towards 
the open country, and haul, or pack the baggage (by 
men) down to the Del Norte. With great labor the 
baggage was transported across the crest to the head 
sprmgs of a little stream leading to the main river. 
A few days were sufficient to destroy our fine band 
of mules. They generally kept huddled together, 
and as they froze, one would be seen to tumble down 
and the snow would cover him ; sometimes they 
would break off and rush down towards the timber 
until they were stopped by the deep snow, where 
they were soon hidden b}' the pouderk. The courage 
of the men failed fast ; in fact, I have never seen men 
so soon discouraged by misfortune as we were on 
this occasion ; but, as you know, the party was not 
constituted like the former ones. But among those 
who deserve to be honorably mentioned, and who 
behaved like what they were — men of the old ex- 
ploring party— were Godey, King, and Taplin ; and 
first of all Godey. In this situation, I determined to 
send in a party to the Spanish settlements of New 
Mexico, for provisions and mules, to transport our 
baggage to Taos. With economy, and after we 
should leave the mules, we had not two weeks' pro- 
visions in the camp. These consisted of a store 
which I had reserved for a hard day — macaroni and 
bacon. From among the volunteers, I chose King, 
Brackenridge, Creutzfeldt, and the guide Williams; 
the party under the conunand of King. In case of 
the least delay at the settlements, he was to send me 
an express. In the meantime, we were to occupy 
ourselves in removing the baggage and equipage 
down to the Del Norte, which we reached with our 
baggage in a few days after their departure (which 
was the day after Christmas). Like many a Christ- 
mas for years back, mine was spent on the summit 
of a wintry mountain ; my heart filled with gloomy 
and anxious thoughts — with none of the merry faces 
and pleasant luxuries that belong to that happy time. 
You may be sure we contrasted much this with the 
last at Washington, and speculated much on your 
doings, and made many warm wishes for your hap- 
piness. Could you have looked into Agrippa's glass 
for a few moments only ! You remember the volumes 
of Blackstone which I took from your father's library 
when we were overlooking it at our friend Brant's? 
They made my Christmas amusements. I read them, 
to pass the heavy time and forget what was around 
me. Certainly you may suppose that my first law 
lessons will be well remembered. Day after day 
passed by and no news from our express party. 
Snow continued to fall almost incessantly on the 
mountain. The spirits of the camp grew lower. 
Proue laid down in the trail and froze to death. In 
a sunshiny day, and having with him means to make 
a fire, he threw his blanket down in the trail, and 
laid there till he froze to death. After sixteen days 
Lad elapsed from King's departure, I became so 
uneasy at the delay, that I decided to wait no longer. 
I was aware that our troops had been engaged in 
hostilities with the Spanish Utahs and Apaches, who 
range in the North River valley, and became fearful 
that they (King's party) had been cut off by these 
Indians ; I could imagine no other accident. Leav- 
ing the camp employed with the baggage, and in 
charge of Mr. Vincenthaler, I started down the river 
with a small party consisting of Godey (with his 



young nephew), Mr. Preuss and Saunders. We 
carried our arms and provisions for two or three 
days. In the camp the messes had provisions for 
two or three meals, more or less, and about five 
pounds of sugar to each man. Failing to meet King, 
my intention was to make the Ked River settlement, 
about twenty-five miles north of Taos, and send back 
the speediest relief possible. My instructions to the 
camp were, that if they did not hear from me within 
a stated time, they were to follow down the Del 
Norte. 

On the second day after leaving camp we came 
upon a fresh trail of Indians, — two lodges, with a 
considerable number of animals. This did not lessen 
our uneasiness for our people. As their trail when 
we met it turned and went down the river, we fol- 
lowed it. On the fifth we surprised an Indian on the 
ice of the river. He proved to be a Utah, son of a 
Grand River chief, we had formerly known, and be- 
haved to us in a friendly manner. We encamped near 
them at night. By a present of a rifle, my two blan- 
kets, and other promised rewards when we should 
get in, I prevailed upon this Indian to go with us as 
a guide to the Red River settlement, and take with 
him four of his horses, principally to carry our little 
baggage. These were wretchedly poor, and could 
get along only in a very slow walk. On that day (the 
sixth) we left the lodges late, and travelled only some 
six or seven miles. About sunset we discovered a 
little smoke, in a grove of timber off from the river, 
and thinking perhaps it might be our express party 
on its return, we went to see. This was the twenty- 
second day since they had left us, and the sixth since 
we had left the camp. We found them, — three of 
them, — Creutzfeldt, Brackenridge, and Williams, — 
the most miserable objects I have ever seen. I did 
not recognize Creutzfeldt's features when Bracken- 
ridge brought him up to me and mentioned his name. 
They had been starving. King had starved to death 
a few days before, itis remains were some six or 
eight miles above, near the river. By aid of the 
horses, we carried these three with us to Red River 
settlement, which we reached (Jan. 20) on the tenth 
evening after leaving our camp in the mountains, 
having travelled through snow and on foot one hundred 
and sixty miles. I look upon the anxiety which induced 
me to set out from the camp as an inspiration. Had 
I remained there waiting the party which had been 
sent in, every man of us would probably have per- 
ished. 

The morning after reaching the Red River town, 
Godey and myself rode on to the Rio Hondo and Taos, 
in search of animals and supplies, and on the second 
evening after that on which we had reached Red 
River, Godey had returned to that place with about 
thirty animals, provisions, and four Mexicans, with 
which he set out for the camp on the following mor- 
ning. On the road he received eight or ten others 
which were turned over to him by the orders of Ma- 
jor Beale, the commanding officer of this northern 
district of New Mexico. 1 expect that Godey will 
reach this place with the party on Wednesday even- 
ing, the 3l8t. From Major Beale I received the offer 
of every aid in his power, and such actual assistance 
as he was able to render. Some horses which he had 
just recovered from the Utahs were loaned to me, 
and he supplied me from the commissary's depart- 
ment with provisions which I could have had no- 
where else. I find myself in the midst of friends. With 
Carson is living Owens, and Maxwell is at his father- 
in-law's, doing a very prosperous business as a mer- 
chant and contractor for the troops. 

******* 

Monday, 29th. — ^My letter now assumes a journal 
form. No news yet from the party, — a great deal of 
falling weather ; rain and sleet here, and snow in the 
mountains. 



24: 



LIFE OF COL. FREMONT. 



I am anxiously waiting to hear, in much uncertamty 
as to their fate. My presence kept them together 
and quiet ; my absence may have a bad effect. When 
■we overtook King's starving party, Brackenridge 
said he " would rather have seen me than his father." 
He felt himself safe. 

Taos, Nbw Mbxico, Feb. 6, 1S49. 
After a long delay, which had wearied me to the 
point of resolving to set out again myself, tidings 
have at last reached me from my ill-fated party. Mr. 
Haler came in last night, having, the night before, 
reached Ked River settlement, with some three or 
four others. Including Mr. King and Proue, we have 
lost eleven of our party. Occurrences, after I left 
them, are briefly these, so far as they are within 
Haler's knowledge. 

******* 

You will remember that I had left the camp with 
occupation sufBcient to employ them for three or 
four days, after which they were to follow me down 
the river. Within that time I had expected the relief 
from King, if it was to come at all. 

They remained where I had left them seven days, 
and then started down the rive r. Manuel— you will 
remember Manuel, the Consuiie Indian— gave way 
to a feeling of despair after they had travelled about 
two miles, begged Haler to shoot him, and then 
turned and made his way back to the camp ; intend- 
ing to die there, as he doubtless did. They followed 
our trail down the river— twenty- two men they were 
in all. About ten miles below the camp, Wise gave 
out, threw away his gun and blanket, and a few hun- 
dred yards further, fell over into the snow and died. 
Two Indian boys, young men, countrymen of 
Manuel, were behind. They rolled up Wise in his 
blanket, and buried him in the snow on the river 
bank. No more died that day— none the next. 
Carver raved during the night, his imagination 
wholly occupied with images of many things which 
he fancied himself eating. In the morning, he wan- 
dered off from the party, and probably soon died. 
They did not see him again. Sorel on this day gave 
out, and laid down to die. They built him a fire, and 
Moi-in, who was in a dying condition, and snow-blind, 
remained. These two did not probably last till 
morning. That evening, I think, Hubbard killed a 
deer. They travelled on, getting here and there a 
grouse, but probably nothing else, the snow having 
frightened off the game. Things were desperate, 
and brought Haler to the determination of breaking 
up the party, in order to prevent them from living 
upon each other. He told them "that he had done 
all he could for them, that they had no other hope 
remaining than the expected relief, and that their 
best plan was to scatter, and make the best of their 
■way in small parties down the river. That, for his 
part, if he was to be eaten, he would, at all events, 
be found travelling when he did die." They accord- 
ingly separated. With Mr. Haler continued five 
others and the two Indian boys. Rohrer now be- 
came very despondent; Haler encouraged him by 
recalling to mind hiti. family, and urged him to hold 
out a little longer. On this day he fell behind, but 

Eromised to overtake them at evening. Haler, 
cott, Hubbard, and Martin agreed that if any one 
of them should give out, the others were not to wait 
for him to die, but build a fire for him and push on. 
At night, Kern's mess encamped a few hundred 
yards from Haler's, with the intention, according to 
Taplin, to remain where they were until the relief 
should come, and in the meantime to live upon those 
who had died, and upon the weaker ones as they 
should die. With the three Kerns were Cathcart, 
Andrews, McKie, Stepperfeldt, and Taplin. 

Ferguson and Beadle had remained together be- 
hind. In the evening, Rohrer came up and remained 



with Kern's mess. Mr. Haler learnt afterwards ft-om ! 
that mess that Rohrer and Andrews wandered off the ; 
next day, and died. They say they saw their bodies. 1 
In the morning, Haler's party continued on. After I 
a few hours, Hubbard gave out. They built him a i 
fire, gathered him some wood, and left him, without, 
as Haler says, turning their heads to look at him as 
they went off. About two miles further, Scott — you 
remember Scott, who used to shoot birds for you at 
the frontier — gave out. They did the same for him 
as for Hubbard, and continued on. In the afternoon 
the Indian boys went ahead, and before nightfall met 
Godey with the relief. Haler heard and knew the 
guns which he fired for him at night, and starting 
early in the morning, soon met him. I hear that 
they all cried together like children. Haler turned 
back with Godey, and went with him to where they 
had left Scott. He was still alive, and was saved. 
Hubbard was dead — still warm. From the Kerns' 
mess, they learned the death of Andrews and Rohrer, 
and a little above met Ferguson, who told them that 
Beadle had died the night before. 

Godey continued on with a few New Mexicans and 
pack mules, to bring down the baggage from the 
camp. Haler, with Martin and Bacon, on foot, 
and bringing Scott on horseback, have first arrived 
at the Red River settlement. Provisions and horses 
for them to ride were left with the others, who pre- 
ferred to rest on the river until Godey came back. 
********* 

Very affectionately, 

J. C. FREMONT. 

At Taos, Col. Fremont re-fitted Lis party, 
borrowed money of friends "vvho appreciated 
liim, and after about a fortnight piislied on. 
He followed the valley of the Del Xorte down 
nearly to the northern hne of Mexico, then 
diverged to the south-west, through the Apa- 
che country, and arrived in California the 
latter part of March. "Wlien he got to the 
Spanish towns on the Santa Cruz river, lie fell 
in with large parties of rancheros — extensive 
graziers — well mounted and fitted out, on 
their way to California, to dig gold. They 
a])plied to Col. Fremont to take conmiand of 
them, as tliey were constantly appreliensive 
of attacks from the Indians. He declined the 
command, but consented to travel with them, 
and render them any aid he could. The In- 
dians at that time were extremely hostile to 
the Mexicans, and committed constant depre- 
dations upon their j)roperty. When Colonel 
Fremont arrived in California a considerable 
number of them requested permission to ao- 
company him to Mariposa, and go to digging 
gold on his land at the halves. To this pro- 
position he agreed, and they went to work. 
At the end of one month they divided about 
one hundred pounds of gold. From May till 
winter Col. Fremont was in Mariposa, and 
the towns below. Mrs. Fremont had arrived 
in June, by the way of the Isthmus. 

Pending the formation of a State Constitu- 
tion, he exerted a steady and poAverful influ- 
ence to make California a free State. 

In December, he was elected to the United 
States Senate. 



LIFE OF COL. FKEMONT. 



25 



CHAPTER VIT. 

Draws the Short Term — Bxtraordinary Amount of Work which he Accomplished in the Senate in Twenty-one Days— 
Payors the Cause of Education — Advocates the Riglita of the Masses against Government Monopoly — His Votes. 



DR. GWIX Avas elected to the U. S. Senate 
with Col. Fremont. In drawing lots for 
the long and short terms — they being the first 
senators from the State — Col. Fremont got 
the short term ; and as he did not return to 
the short session, he was-Hvctually in the Sen- 
ate cliainber only 21 working days. In that 
short period of time he performed an amount 
of useful work which would have been a lair 
result for sis years of senatorial service. lie 
introduced eigliteen important bills, among 
which were : 

I. — A Bill to Regulate the "Working of the 

Mines in California. 
II. — ^A Bill to Grant said State Public Lands 

for Purposes of Education. 
III. — ^A Bill to Grant Six Townships for an 

University. 
IV. — A Bill to Grant Lands for Asylums for 
the Deaf and Dumb, for the Blind and 

Insane. 
V. — A Bill to Provide for Opening a Road 

Across the Continent, 



In an elaborate speech on his Bill to Regi>- 
late the Working of the Mines, Mr. Fremont 
said: 

" The principles of this bill, as I have already 
stated them, are to exclude all idea of making a 
national revenue out of these mines, to prevent the 
possibility of monopolies by moneyed capitalists, 
and to give to natural capital, that is to say, to 
LABOR and INDUSTRY, a fair chance to work, and 
the secure enjoyment of what they find." 

On a proposition to substitute for the bill 
abolish the Slave Trade, a bill abolishing 
Slavery in the District of Columbia, he voted 
Nay. The vote stood. Yeas 5, Nays 45. 

On a bill to suppress the Slave trade in the 
District of Columbia, he voted Yea. 

On a bill to punish any person who should 
entice or induce a slave to run away, by con- 
finement in the District Penitentiary "five years, 
he voted Nay. 

On a bill to authorize the corporations in 
the District to prohibit free negroes under pen- 
alty of fine and imprisonment, he voted Nay.' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Engaged in the Cattle business — Goes to England — Imprisoned for a Debt of the Government. 



AFTER 144 ballots. Col. Fremont was de- 
feated as a candidate for re-election to the 
Senate, in 1851. He was too strongly anti- 
slavery for the State at that time. 

Not long after this he went to his Mariposa 
estate, and engaged in cattle raising. About 
this time treaties were negotiated betwen the 
U. S. Commissioners, appointed for that pur- 
pose, and the Indian tribes in California, by 
the terms of whicli the Indians were to be 
supplied with large amounts of beef. The 
oominissioners advertised for proposals, and 
Col. Fremont obtained a heavy contract, under 
which he actually furnished several thousand 
liead of cattle. It was only after a long con- 
troversy, and by carrying the case before 
Congress, that he obtained his pay, in 1354. 
In committee of the whole, and through the 
House, the appropriation passed without one 
objection being raised to it. The next day it 
passed the Senate. 

In March, 1852, Col. Fremont went with 
bis family to Europe. He was absent a year 
and-a-haif. 

While in London, in April, soon after his 



arrival, just as he was leaving the Clarendon 
Hotel to attend a dinner party, he was arrest- 
ed for an obligation incurred by him, when in 
the service of the government, and on its 
account, while acting as governor of Califor- 
nia, to clothe his battalion and enable them to 
return home. He had just handed Mrs. Fre- 
mont into a carriage, and was about getting 
in himself, when four Bow Street oflicers step- 
ped up to him, and said: "We arrest you, sir, 
for debt." Their manner was insolent in the 
extreme. A solicitor's clerk equally rude, ac- 
companied them. They conducted Col. Fre- 
mont to what is called a Sponging House. 
Here he remained locked up till tlie next morn- 
ing; his American friends rushed to him, and 
offered to pay the heavy bribe which the offl- 
cei's demanded to let him go the evening of his 
arrest ; but Col. Fremont objected. He bore 
the annoyance with perfect composure, and the 
next morning the requisite bail Avas furnislied, 
and he was released. Possibly he dreamed 
that night of an administration under which 
private citizens and faithful soldiers would not 
be imprisoned for debts of the government. 



26 



LIFE OF COL. FREMONT. 



CHAPTEPw IX. 



Fifth Expedition— The Cochatope Pass— Reduced to liring on Horse Meat — Short Allowance— Mr. Fuller glvea out— 
Col. Fremont in a Critical Position— Hauling a Man up the Mountain— They reach an Indian Camp — Death of 
Mr. Fuller— Arrival at Parawana— The Whites unable to Proceed — Fremont goes on with the Delawarea — Despe- 
rate Descent upon Horse Thief Indians — Reach California. 



UNDISMAYED by the catastrophes of 
his last previous expedition, Ool. Fre- 
mont was still determined to explore the 
Cochatope Pass in mid-winter, and ascertain 
by his own observation whether the snows 
were so deep as to render rail-road travel im- 
practicable through it at that season. 

In the fall of 1853, he fitted out another 
expedition at the great expense of himself and 
Ool. Benton. 

He went with his men to the frontiers in 
September, but found himself so much pros- 
trated by the remains of fever, as to make it 
necessary for him to return to St. Louis for 
medical advice. His party went on to Salt 
Creek, in tlie Buffalo region, about two hun- 
dred miles beyond Westport, and there re- 
mained encamped, until he rejoined them on 
the last day of October. 

On the 14th of December, they went through 
the Cochatope Pass, and, although it was an 
• unusually severe winter, found only four inches 
of snow oil the level. The access was easy, 
described by Fremont as about like the ascent 
to the White House at Washington. They had 
begun at this time to get short of provisions ; 
and serious troubles awaited them farther 
on. 

A few days after emerging from the pass, 
they were obliged to ascend a very steep 
mountain, covered at the time, with snow, 
three or four feet deep. The liead mule pack- 
ed with the buffalo robes of the camp, had 
got up about two hundred feet, when his hind 
legs sank down into the snow, so deep that he 
tumbled over, and turning somerset after 
somerset, came down to tlie base of the moun- 
tain. In his descent he brought down nearly 
all the animals, fifty-four in number, many of 
them with riders. They all came tumbling 
down together, rolling over and over. One 
mule and one horse were killed. The next 
morning they succeeded in ascending the 
mountain, and encamped upon its summit, where 
the snow was four feet deep. That night, the 
thermometer sank to 30° below zero. The 
men stood to their waists in the snow, 
guarding tlie animals, to prevent their run- 
ning away, because there was nothing for them 
to eat. 

In going down the other side of the moun- 
tain the day following, they broke their large 
tent pole, and were consequently obliged to 
sleep in the open air upon the snow, with no 
covering but their blankets, after that. 



About the first of January, tliey were re- 
duced to horse flesh, as their only food ; and 
it became necessary to put them on a short 
allowance even of this. Mr. Carvalho, of 
Baltimore, who accompanied Col. Fremont 
as daguerreotypist, gives tlio following ac- 
count of their condition about this time: 

"When an animal gave out, so that lio could not 
proceed any further, he was shot down by the 
Indians with us, who immediately cut his throat, and 
saved all the blood, which, when boiled, served, 
together with the entrails, as the meal for the whole 
party. The animal was carefully divided into 
twenty-two parts — two parts were given to Colonel 
Fremont and his cook, ten parts to the white camp, 
and ten parts to the Delawares. No part of the ani- 
mal was suffered to be wasted : the boues were par- 
tially burnt to afford some little employment to the 
teutii, which were becoming dull from disuse. The 
hide was also divided in equal proportions by the 
man whose duty it was to officiate as cook. The 
passions of the men were so distorted by their priva- 
tions, that they were not satisfied with the cook's 
division of the hide ; but one man turned his back, 
while another asked him who was to have this piece, 
and that, and so on, until all was divided. Tho 
same process was gone through with in regard to 
the horse-soup, which, when made with tlie entrails, 
'shaken well,' and boiled in snow, possessed a fla- 
vor peculiar to itself, and readily distinguished from 
the various preparations made by the celebrated 
'Ude,' of gastronomic memory. The hide was 
roa-sted so as to burn off tlie hair and make it crisp, 
the hoofs and shins were disposed of by regular rotar 
tion. 

" Our work was never done. When we got to 
cam]), all the men off duty were dispatched to gather 
fire-wood to burn during the night. One might be 
seen with a decayed trunk on his shoulder, while a 
half dozen others were using their combined efforts 
to bring into camp some dried tree. Colonel Fre- 
mont himself joined the men a. times, and whenever 
it was peculiarly difficult, in prdcuring the necessary 
material to prevent us from freezing while we were 
in camp. 

" The men all laid out in the open air witliont cover- 
ing except their blanket^ and robes. I have been 
awakened to go on guard in the morning watch, 
when looking around, my companions appeared like 
so many graves, covered with eight to twelve inches 
of fresh snow. Some of the animals woKld eat the 
snow, while others would not. To keep them alive, 
we had to melt snow in our camp kettles, and give 
it them to drink, which process wa.s attended with 
much fatigue and trouble. The animals most gene- 
rally were turned out on the snow, to gather what 
they could find ; some of them, in their search after 
grass, wandered a considerable distance from camp. 

" We lived on horse meat fifty days. At the begin- 
ning of the time, Colonel Fremont addressed us in a 
few words on the prospect which was before us ; he 
told us that it depended on ourselves whether we 
should get through the difficulties, which he frankly 
admitted would be great and dreadful, that we must 
now inevitably encounter. He exhorted us to reso- 
lution and perseverance. He informed us that on his 



LWB OF COL. TBEMONT. 



27 



last expedition, a detachment of men whom he had 
sent for succor had been guilty of eating one of their 
number. He expressed his abhorrence of the act, 
and in conclusion told us that he would shoot the 
first man who should propose, under any circum- 
stances, that we should eat each other." 

The Grand Eiver, the Eastern branch of the 
Colorado, never having been explored nor laid 
down on any map, Ool. Fremont was very de- 
sirous to examine it. He followed the stream 
down about one hundred mile-s. The abrupt 
banks of the stream, composed of various 
leolored sandstone, rise t« the height of several 
jhundred feet, and the serpentine course of the 
iriver rendered repeated crossings necessary. 
jLeaving the Grand River, after following it 
|for nearly a fortnight — passing over a divide 
iof forty or fifty miles entirely destitute of 
igrass and water, they reached a fertile little 
spot on the Green River, the western part of 
the Colorado, at which was an encampment 
[of Indians. The sight of an Indian camp 
[raised hopes in the minds of the lialf-famished 
[fcravellers of finding food, but these miserable 
isarages lived on fine grass seed in the winter, 
only a small quantity of which could be ob- 
tained from them. Shortly after crossing 
Q-reen River, Mr. Fuller, of St. Louis, a tall, 
large and powerful looking man, who had 
odready crossed the plains to California, prin- 
cipally on foot, suddenly showed signs of 
axhaustion. He was a favorite with the men, 
and those Avho were with him helped him on, 
antil he said he could go no farther, and he 
begged them to proceed to the camp and pro- 
,stire some nourishment and bring back, as lie 
iwas starving. He was left wrapt in his blue 
biajikets lying on the snow. It was a barren 
waste, and no wood could be procured for a 

J. At ten o'clock they arrived at camp, 
aaad reported to Col. Fremont the facts. He 
jent back a Mexican named Frank, with the 
two best mules and some cooked horse meat, 
to find Mr. Fuller. Of course, the whole party 
wwe almost perfectly exhausted ; but no eye, 
of Indian or white, closed in sleep that night, 
aid at short intervals, the solemn stillness in 
which they were held by the long agony of 
iuspense was broken by their commander's 
roice, inquiring from his tent of the guard, 
for the missing man. Morning broke, and 
neither Mr. Fuller nor the Mexican who had 
been sent after him, had ap])eared. Three of 
fliQ Delawares on three of the strongest ani- 
mals were dispatched in quest of the two lost 
men. About ten o'clock, one of the Dela- 
wares brought in Frank, who reported that 
he had missed his way, and had nearly frozen 
to death. About four in the afternoon, the 
ather two Delawares appeared with Mr. Ful- 
ler, one supporting him on each side, as he 
was too weak to sit on his horse without 
sssiatanoe. The men all gathered round Mr. 



Fuller, weeping like so many children, ovei^ 
come with joy at his recovery. lie had kept 
his eyes open through the whole dreary night, 
for he knew tliat to him sleep and death 
would be one. His feet and ankles were black 
with frost. On Mr. Fuller's account, the 
whole of the party remained at tliis encamp- 
ment nearly three days, and as long as be 
lived, every man in his mess, of his own 
accord, cut from his scanty allowance of horse 
meat a slice to add to Mr. Fuller's portion. 

About the first of February, the liorses and 
mules had become so much reduced, tliat Col. 
Fremont was obliged to make a ccvche (deposit 
under ground) of tlie daguerreotype apparatus, 
and every other article that could be dispensed 
with. 

Col. Fremont had been tramping for a long 
time ahead of his party, with the Delaware, 
Solomon, by his side, breaking track through 
the deep snow. It was afternoon. They 
were on a steep mountain side, toiling slowly 
up, when, for the first and only time in all his 
expeditions. Col. Fremont himself, suddenly, 
in tlie twinkling of an eye, felt his strength 
give way. He could not move. He compre- 
hended, in an instant, the crisis. He knew 
that the fate, not of himself only, but of the 
whole party, depended upon liis action at that 
moment. Noticing that there was a clear spot 
amid some trees near by, he remarked to Solo- 
mcm, that it was a good place to encamp. No 
one noticed that he could not un^ve ; no one 
ever knew it. They stopped there that night, 
and the next morning, refreshed by the inhe- 
rent strength of his own will more than by 
the dry horse meat which was his only food, 
he led forward his half-starved men. 

The snows were deep. Before this weik 
had passed, another critical time came on. 
An unsuccessful attempt had been made to 
break through the snow. At iiiglit a council 
was held by Fremont, Wolfe the Indian chief, 
and Solomon. The Chief spoke first. It was 
impossible, he said ; they could not get over 
the mountain. Solomon silently looked up to 
the Colonel for a reply. '• That is not the 
point," said Col. Fremont, " whether we can 
get through. We must cross. We are going 
to cross. The question is how we can do it." 
They crossed. 

One of the men who had borne up as long 
as he could, told Col. Fremont that he could 
go no farther, and begged that he might be 
left to die. They were climbing a mountain. 
Col. Fremont was very anxious to save him. 
He urged him to take courage, and try again. 
It was all in vain. Col. Freinofit then 
strapped him to his back, and with the blood 
running from both his own knees he clambered 
up among the rocks, and hauled the man to 
the top of the mountain. 

Fuller died, " like a man, in Lis saddle," as 



28 



LIFE OF COL. FREMONT. 



Fremont wrote to Col. Benton, the very day 
at tlie close of which they reached an Indian 
camp. At this place the Delawares purchased, 
at an enormous price, an old dog, and made a 
feast of him. The whites, at exorbitant prices, 
obtained a very little food. The next day they 
reached Parawan. Most of tlie men, whea 
they got in sight of this Mormon settlement, 
became like children. They were entirely 
overcome. Some fell to the earth, uncon- 
scious, like dead men. 

All but one of the whites were left at Pa- 
rawan. Ool. Fremont, after waiting a few 
days to recruit, but a considerable portion of 
which he spent in making scientific observa- 
tions, continued on towards California. His 
brave Delawares, who would have followed him 
into regions which all of us wish to avoid, 
stuck by him. 

Before Col. Fremont reached California, they 
met with other narrow escapes, and passed 
through many scenes similar to some of the 
most stirring of those recorded. 

When they were in the mountains their 
horses and mules had become starved almost 
to death. Just at the edge of evening, one 



day, a little valley was discovered, shut in all 
round by mountains. With delight they made 
towards it. When they were far down a very 
abrupt descent — Col. Fremont and Solomon 
some distance ahead of the otliers — they dis- 
covered that a large body of Horse Thief In- 
dians were encamped upon the green spot, 
where they had a numerous band of fine horses, 
which, of course, they had stolen. The Colo- 
nel gave the command instantly to charge 
down upon them. This was, perhaps, the 
most dangerous attack in wliich he was 
ever engaged. Down they dashed, the mules 
jumping, sometimes, ofll" from square-front- 
ed rocks five or six feet in height. A 
shower of poisoned arrows from the bows of 
the Horse Thieves greeted them. Two of 
them struck a Delaware, and dangerously 
wounded him. Five horses were killed and 
more wounded. On, however, they rushed, 
cutting ofi:* the foe from their band of horses, 
and driving them up the mountain sides. 

No reprisal could have been more timely. 
The fresh, fine horses captured here, bore Ool. 
Fremont and his men triumphantly over tii« 
mountains, and into California. 



CHAPTER X. 



Nominations of Col. Fremont for President — His Speech from the Balcony — Letter to National Americana — Letter to 
Piiiladelphia Committee of People's Convention — Platform of the Philadelphia Convention. Testimonials — From Souih 
Carolina — From Baron Humboldt. 



COL. FREMONT was first formally nom- 
inated for the Pre-sidency in his own 
camp on the banks of the Kansas river in 
October, 1853, while he was detained at St. 
Louis by illness. His name was proposed as 
that of a man every way qualified for the 
oflSce by one of his party from Charleston, 
South Carolina, and was accepted by acclama- 
tion as the first choice of every man in the 
camp. 

On the 10th of June last he was nominated 
by a State Convention at Concord, New 
Hampshire; and on the 18th of the same 
month by the National People's Convention 
at Philadelphia. He was afterwards nominated 
by the National Americans at New York. 

On the evening of June 25, after a large and 
remarkably enthusiastic ratification meeting 
at the Tabernacle in the city of New York, a 
dense crowd of people proceeded to the house 
of Col. Fremont in Ninth street, and in re- 
sponse to their loud calls he appeared and 
briefly addressed them. 

OOL. frimont's speech. 

Gentlemen, I thank you for this friendly call. 
(Cheers.) I am happy to receive this enthusiastic 
expression of devotion to the cause in which we are 
engaged. (Loud and continued cheers.) The enthu- 



siasm yon have manifested, and the soundness of the 
cause to which it is directed, give me great con- 
fidence in your final and complete success. (Deafen- 
ing yells and cheers.) If I am elected to the high 
office for which your partiality has nominated me, I 
will endeavor to administer the government accord- 
ing to the true spirit of the Constitution, (Cries of 
"You know you will," and "You're our man,") as 
it was intei-preted by the great men who framed and 
adopted it, and in such a way as to preserve both 



on"), especially as you will expect me hereafter to 
communicate with you more fully. I therefore con- 
tent myself with again thanking you very warmly for 
your congratulations and the kindness you have man- 
ifested towards me. 

LETTBB FROM COLONEL FREMONT TO THE NATIONAI, 
AMERICANS. 
New York, Monday, Jime 80, 1856. 
Gentlemen: I received with deep sensibility your 
communication, informing me that a Convention of 
my fellow-citizens, recently assembled in this city, 
have nominated me their candidate for the highest 
office in the gift of the American people ; and I de- 
sire through you to offer to the members of that 
body, and to their respective constituencies, my 
grateful acknowledgment for this distinguished ex- 
pression of confidence. In common with all who are 
interested in the welfare of the country, I had been 
strongly impressed by the generous spirit of concili- 
ation which influenced the action of your assembl^y 
and characterizes your note. A disposition to avoiq 



LITE OF COL. FEEMONT. 



29 



all special questions tending to defeat unanimity in 
the great cause, for the sake of which it was con- 
ceded that diflerences of opinion on less eventful 
questions should be held in abeyance, was evinced 
alike in the proceedings of your Convention in refer- 
ence to me, and in the manner in which you have 
communicated the result. In this course no sacrifice 
of opinion on any side becomes necestary. 

I shall, in a few days, be able to transmit you a 
paper, designed for all parties engaged in our cause, 
in which 1 present to the country my views of the 
leading subjects which are now put in issue in the 
contest for the Presidency. My confidence in the 
success of our cause is greatly strengthened by the 
belief that these views will meet the approbation of 
your constituents. 

Trusting that the national and patriotic feelings 
evinced by the tender of your co-operation in the 
work of regenerating the government, may increase 
the glow of enthusiasm which pervades the country, 
and harmonize all elements in our truly great and 
common cause, I accept the nomination with which 
you have honored me, and am, gentlemen, very re- 
spectfully, Your fellow-citizen, 

J. C. FREMONT. 
Messrs. Thomas H. Ford, Ambrose Stevens, W. A. 
Howard, Stephen M. Allen, Simon P. Case, 
Thos. Shankland, J. E. Dunham, M. C. Geer — a 
Committee of the National American Party. 

LETTEE OF ACCEPTANCE— COL. FREMONT TO THE COM- 
MITTEE OF THE people's CONVENTION. 

New York, July 8, 1856. 

Gentlemen : You call me to a high responsibility 
by placing me in the van of a great movement of the 
people of the United States, who, without regard to 
past differences, are uniting in a common efibrt to 
bring back tlie action of the Federal Government to 
the principles of Washington and Jefferson. Com- 
prehending the magnitude of the trust which they 
have declared themselves willing to place in my 
hands, and deeply sensible to the honor which their 
unreserved confidence in this threatening position of 
the public affairs implies, I feel that I cannot better 
respond than by a sincere declaration that, in the 
event of my election to the Presidency, I should 
enter upon the execution of its duties with a single- 
hearted determination to promote the good of the 
whole country, and to direct solely to this end all 
the power of the Government, irrespective of party 
issues, and regardless of sectional strifes. The 
declaration of principles embodied in the resolves of 
your Convention expresses the sentiments in which 
1 have been educated, and which have been ripened 
into convictions by personal observation and expe- 
rience. With this declaration and avowal, I think 
it necessary to revert to only two of the subjects 
embraced in the resolutions, and to those only be- 
cause events have surrounded them with grave and 
critical circumstances, and given to them especial 
importance. 

I concur in the views of the Convention depreca- 
ting the foreign policy to which it adverts. The as- 
sumption that we have the right to take from 
another nation its domains because we want them, 
is an abandonment of the honest character which 
our country has acquired. To provoke hostilities 
by unjust assumptions would be to sacrifice the 
peace and character of the country, when all its 
interests might be more certainly secured, and its 
objects attained by just and healing counsels, in- 
volving no loss of reputation. 

International embarrassments are mainly the re- 
sults of a secret diplomacy, which aims to keep from 
the knowledge of the people the operations of the 
Government. This system is inconsistent with the 



character of our institutions, and is itself yielding 
gradually to a more enlightened public opinion, and 
to the power of a free Press, which, by its broad 
dissemination of political intelligence, secures in 
advance to the side of justice the judgment of the 
civilized world. An honest, firm and open policy 
in our foreign relations would command the united 
support of the nation, whose deliberate opinions il 
would necessarily reflect. 

Nothing is clearer in the history of our institu 
tions than the design of the nation in asserting it? 
own independence and freedom, to avoid giving 
countenance to the extension of Slavery. The 
influence of the small but compact and powerful 
class of men interested in Slavery, who command 
one section of the country, and wield a vast po- 
litical control as a consequence in the other, is now 
directed to turn this impulse of the Revolution and 
reverse its principles. The extension of Slavery 
across the continent is the object of the power which 
now rules the Government ; and from this spirit has 
sprung those kindred wrongs in Kansas so truly por- 
trayed in one of your resolutions, which prove that 
the elements of the most arbitrarj- governments have 
not been vanquished by the just theory of our own. 
It would be out of place here to pledge myself to any 
particular policy that has been suggested to termi- 
nate the sectional controversy engendered by politi- 
cal animosities, operating on a powerful class banded 
together by a common interest. A practical remedy 
is the admission of Kansas into the Union as a Free 
State. The South should, in my judgment, earnestly 
desire such consummation. It would vindicate the 
good faith — it would correct the mistake of the 
repeal ; and the North, having practically the bene- 
fit of the agreement between the two sections, 
would be satisfied, and good feeling be restored. 
The measure is perfectly consistent with the honor 
of the South, and vital to its interests. That fatal 
act which gave birth to this purely sectional strife, 
originating in the scheme to take from free labor the 
country secured to it by a solemn covenant, cannot 
be too soon disarmed of its pernicious force. The 
only genial region of the middle latitudes left to the 
emigrants of the Northern States for homes cannot 
be conquered from the free laborers, who have long 
considered it as set apart for them in our inheri- 
tance, without provoldng a desperate struggle. 
Whatever may be the persistence of the particular 
class which seems ready to hazard everything for 
the success of the unjust scheme it has partially 
effected, I firmly believe that the great heart of the 
nation, which throbs with the patriotism of the free 
men of both sections, will have power to overcome 
it. They will look to the rights secured to them by 
the Constitution of the Union, as their best safeguard 
from the oppression of the class which — by a mo- 
nopoly of the soil and of slave labor to till it — might 
in time reduce them to the extremity of laboring 
upon the same terms with the slaves. The great 
body of non-slaveholding free men, including those 
of the South, upon whose welfare Slavery is an 
oppression, will discover that the power of the Gene- 
ral Government over the public lands may be benefi- 
cially exerted to advance their interests and secure 
their independence. Knowing this, their suffrages 
will not be wanting to maintain that authority in 
the Union which is absolutely essential to the main- 
tenance of their own liberties, and which has more 
than once indicated the purpose of disposing of the 
public lands in such a way as would make every set- 
tler upon them a freeholder. 

If the people intrust to me the administration of 
the Government, the laws of Congress in relation to 
the Territories will be faithfully executed. All its 
authority will be exerted in aid of the national will 
to re-establish the peace of the country on the just 
principles which have heretofore received the sane- 



$0 



LIFE OF OQL. FREMONT. 



tion of the Federal Government, of the States, and 
oftn^ie people of both sections. Such a policy would 
loave no aliment to that sectional party which seeks 
Its aggrandizement by appropriating the new Ter- 
ritories to capital in the form of Slavery, but wonld 
inevitably result in the triumph of free labor — the 
natural capital which constitutes the real wealth of 
this great country, and creates that intelligent power 
in the masses alone to be relied on as the bulwark of 
free institutions. 

Trusting that I have a heart capable of compre- 
hending our whole country, with its varied interests, 
and confident that patriotism exists in all parts of 
the Union, I accept the nomination of the Conven- 
tion, in the hope that I may be enabled to serve use- 
fully its cause, which I consider the cause of consti- 
tutional Freedom. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

J. C. FREMONT. 

To Messrs. H. S. Lane, President of the Convention ; 
Jahes M. Ashley, Anthony J. Bleecker, Joseph 
C. HORNBLOWER, E. R. HoAK, Thaddeus Stevenk, 
KiNGSLEY S. Bingham, John A. Wills, C. F. 
Cleveland, Cyrus Aldrich, Committee, &c. 

Among the very numerous testimonials in 
favor of Col. Fremont, the following may not 
be out of place here : 

SWORD FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. 

The citizens of Charleston, S. C, at a public meet- 
ing, in 1846, after passing resolutions, highly eulogis- 
tic of Col. Fremont's services in Oregon and CaU- 
fornia, voted him a sword, limiting the subscription 
for the same at one dollar to a person. The sword 
is costly and elejrantly wrought, of gold, silver 
mounted, in a scabbard of gold, and bears the follow- 
ing inscription : 

BY THE CITIZENS OF CHARLBSTON 
TO LIEtPTENANT-CGLONEL 

JOHN CHARLES FREMONT. 

A MEMORIAL OF THEIR HIGH APPECIATION 

OF THE GALLANTRY AND SCIENCE 

HE HAS DISPLAYED IN HIS 

SKKVICES IN OREGON AND CALIFOBNIA. 

SWORD BELT FROM THE CHARLESTON WOMEN. 

[From the Charleston, S. C, Mercury, Sept. 2T, 1847.] 

We regret to learn that Col. Fremont, whose de- 
parture for Aiken we noticed a few days since, did 
not reach that place to see his mother alive. She 
died but a few hours before his arrival. He accom- 
panied her remains the next day to this city, and af- 
ter witnessing the last sad rites, left here the evening 
following for Washington. In this affliction, rendered 
doubly poignant by nis deep disappointment in not 
receiving her parting look of recognition after his 
long and eventful absence, he has the sympathy of 
our entire community. 

" The marked and brilliant career of Col. Fremont 
has arrested general attention and admiration, and 
has been watched with a livelj' interest by his fellow 
citizens of South Carolina. Charleston particularly is 
proud of him, and the reputation which he has at so 
early an age achieved for himself, she claims as 
something in which she too has a share. But for the 
melancholy circumstance attending his visit, our city 
wonld have manifested by suitable demonstrations 
tlieir respect for him, and their continued confidence 
ia hie honor and integrity. It will require something 



more than mere accusation to stilly them In thjB 
minds of the people of Charleston. Some months 
since a sword was voted to him by our citizens, the 
individual subscriptions to which were limited to $1 ; 
it now awaits his acceptance at a suitable opportti- 
nity. We are happy to learn that the ladies of Charles- 
ton propose, by a similar subscription, to furnisli 
an appropriate belt to accompany the sword, au 
evidence that they too can appreciate the gallantry 
and heroism which have so signally marked his 
career, and have thrown an air of romance over the 
usually dry detail of scientific pursuit*." 

LETTER FROM BARON HUMBOLDT. 

To Col. Fremont, Senator : — It is very agreeable 
to me, sir, to address you these lines by my excellent 
friend, our Minister to the United States, N. de Ce- 
roid. After having given you, in the new edition of 
my "Aspects cf Nature," the public testimony of 
the admiration which is due to your gigantic labors 
between St. Louis, of Missouri, and the coasts of the 
South Sea, I feel happy to offer you, in this little to- 
ken of my existence (ian.s ce petit si^rie de vie), the 
homage of my warm acknowledgment. You have 
displayed a noble courage in distant expeditions, 
braved all the dangers of cold and famine, enriched 
all the branches of the natural sciences, illustrated a 
vast country which was almost entirely unknown 
to us. 

A merit so rare has been acknowledged by a sove- 
reign warmly^ interested in the progress of physical 
geography ; the king orders me to oiler you the grand 
golden medal destined to those who have labored at 
scientific progress. I hope that this mark of the 
Roj'al good will, will be agreeable to you at a time 
when, upon the proposition of the illustrious geogra- 
pher, Chas. Ritter, the Geographical Society at Ber- 
lin has named you an honorary member. For myself, 
I must thank you particularly also for the honor 
which you have done in attaching my name and that 
of my fellow-laborer and intimate friend, Mr. Bon- 
pland, to countries neighboring to those which have 
been the object of our labors. California, tvhich has 
so nobly resisted the introduction of Slavery, will bs 
■worthily represented by a friend of libei-ty and of tht 
pi'ogi'ess of intelligence. 

Accept, I pray you, sir, the expression of my high 
and affectionate consideration. 

Your most humble and most obedient servant, 
A. VON HUMBOLDT. 

Saks Souci, Octoher 7, 1850. 

On the envelope thus addressed : 

To Colonel Fremont, Senator, 
With the Great Golden Medal 
For progress in the Sciences. 

Baron Humboldt. 

description op the grand golden medal. 

Of fine gold, massive, more than double the size of 
the American double eagle, and of exquisite work- 
manship. On the face is the medallion head of the 
King, Frederick-William the Fourth, surrounded by 
figures emblematical of Religion, Jurisprudence, Me- 
dicine and the Arts. On the reverse, Apollo, in tha 
chariot of the Sun, drawn by four high-mettled, 
plunging horses, traversing the zodiac, and darting 
rays of light from his head. 

FROM HtTMBOLT'S "ASPECTS OF NATCBE." 

Fremont's map and geographical investigationa 
comprehend the extensive region from the junction 
of the Kansas River with the Missouri to the Falls of 
the Columbia, and to the missions of Santa Barbara 



LIFE OF COL. FEEMONT. 



ai 



and Puebla de los Angeles, in New California ; or a 
space of 28 degrees of longitude, and from the 34th 
to the 35th parallel of latitude. Four hundred points 
have been determined hyposometrically by barome- 
tric observations, and, for the most part, geographi- 
cally by astronomical observations; so tliat a dis- 
trict wliich, with tlie windings of the route, amounts 
to 3,600 geographical miles, from the mouth of the 
Kansas to Fort Van Couver and the shores of the 
Pacific (almost 720 miles more than the distance from 
Madrid to Tobolsk), has been represented in profile, 
showing the relative heights above the level of the 
sea. 



As I was, I believe, the first person who undertook 
to represent, in geoguostic profile, the form of entire 
countries— such as the Iberian Peninsula, the high 
lands of Mexico, and the Cordilleras of South Ameri- 
ca (the semi-perspective projections of a Siberian 
traveller, the Abbe Chappe, were founded on mere 
and generally ill-judged estimations of the fall of 
rivers) — ^it has given me peculiar pleasure to see the 
geographical method of representing the form of the 
earth in a vertical direction, of the elevations of the 
solid portion of our planet above its watery covering, 
applied onso graup a scale as has been done in Fre- 
mont's map. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Colonel Fremont's Religion — Mariposa Estate — Personal Appearance — Power of Endurance — Preface at the End- 
Concluding Bemarks. 



COLONEL FREMONT'S religion seems to 
consist chiefly in trying to do as he would 
be done by, rather than in external preten- 
sions. He is a communicant of the Protestant 
Episcopal Oliurch, in which he was confirmed 
at the early age of seventeen. It was the 
faith in which his motlier lived and died, and 
reared her cliildred. Her remains, and those 
of his dear sister and brother, now rest in 
the grave-yard of Si,. Philip's Ohurch — Protest- 
ant Episcopal — in Charleston, where he bu- 
ried them. His children have all been bap- 
tized in the Episcopal Cliurch, which liis wife 
also, who was educated a Presbyterian, at- 
tends. 

These things are stated, because they are 
facts. Can that be a sound and healthy state 
of public feeling wliicli regards them as essen- 
tial, either way, so far as concerns t!ie fitness 
of Colonel Fremont for the Presidency? 
Where, then, is our boasted freedom of con- 
science? The theory of religious as well as 
civil liberty lies at the very foundation of our 
government. Can it be possible that in the 
conduct of a political canvass in this free Re- 
public, such certificates as the following — 
which is perfectly authentic — are important? 

" Washimqton CtTT, Ju,ly 12, 1S56. 
" The following children of J. Charles and Jessie 
Benton Fremont have been baptized in the Church 
of the Parish of the Epiphany, Washington, D. C— 
their baptisms being recorded in the register of said 
parish : 

" 1S48, Aug. 15, Elizabeth McDowell Benton Fre- 
mont. 

" 1848, Aug. 15, Benton Fremont. 
" 1853, Dec. 23, John Charles Fremont 
" 1855, Aug. 1, Francis Preston Fremont. 
" As none were baptized in a house, hid all were 
brought to the church, the order of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church for ' the Ministration of Public 
Baptism of Infants,' was that which was used. 
"J. W. FRENCH, 
^ Rector of tha Parish of the Epiphany, 

" Washington, D. C." 

Colonel Fremont owns a large amount of 
property in California, including the Mari- 



posa estate, which, after protracted and ex- 
pensive litigation, was confirmed to him by 
the Supreme Court at Washington last win- 
ter ; but all his property, at present, is un- 
productive ; so tliat he is now, as far as 
income is concerned, as he has been most of 
his life, a poor man. At the time of his elec- 
tion to the United States Senate, Colonel Fre- 
mont was making money very rapidly, by the 
gold digging on his estate. He had a great 
number of men at work on shares. That 
ended with his entrance upon public life, and 
the pecuniary sacrifice to him was immense. 

Colonel Fremont is about five feet nine 
inches in height, slightly built, wiry, and 
muscular. What his complexion was origi- 
nally it is difficult to tell, but his strongly- 
marked face has been pretty well bronzed by 
sun and wind. Tiie Delaware Indians called 
him "The Iron Man." His manners are quiet 
and unpretending; his presence is impressive, 
and command is written in his large, promi- 
nent, piercing, hazel-gray eye. Mr. Selover, of 
California, who saw him participating in the 
encounter with a rough and turbulent opposi- 
tion at the time of Jack Hays's election as 
sheriff in San Francisco, says that he looked, 
then, just about seven feet high. His heavy, 
waving, dark hair, sprinkled slightly with 
white, parts naturally in the middle, and he 
wears a full beard, after the dictates of Na- 
ture and the practice of the early Christians. 
To this protection he attributes, in a great 
degree, the preservation of his teeth, which 
are perfect, amid the extremes of temperature 
to which ho has been subjected, and of his 
face from the frost. Some time before the 
Philadelphia Convention, a number of wise- 
acres recommended to Colonel Fremont that 
he should shave off his beard and comb liis 
hair differently, as he would thus remove one 
objection to his nomination. His reply was 
worthy of Jackson. " If tha support of the 
whole New York delegation depended upon 
my doing such a thing," said he, " the only 



32 



LIFE OF COL. FEEMONT. 



effect it could have upon me would be, that I 
should wear my beard as it is, and part my 
hair a little wider than I do now." 

During his expeditions Ool. Fremont always 
rode ou a wooden saddle tree, without leather 
or other covering. He was considered a re- 
markably line rider, even among the Mexicans 
and Indians. He has met with many a h.ird 
fall in his wild adventures; but never had a 
liinb broken. Sometimes his horse would 
tumble over the rocks; again, getting a foot 
into some treacherous wolf-hole, he would 
pitch headlong to the ground. But the rider, 
agile as a cat, always struck safely. Alvarado, 
ex-governor of California, said that no other 
such feat as Fremont's ride of eight hundred 
miles in less than eight days had ever been 
performed in that country. 

A man who was with Fremont in his 
foarth expedition, says he never saw him with 
an overcoat on, in tlie coldest weather upon 
the Rocky Mountains. He has tramped 
many a mile through the snow, with no bet- 
ter covering for his feet than ragged and worn 
out moccasins. On one occasion, he had a 
leg and foot badly frozen. Tiie toe nails came 
off; but, a thing unusual, it is said, in such 
oases, they afterwards grew out again. 

Ool. Fremont manifests a regard and con- 
sideration for the feelings of others, and a del- 
icacy about wounding them, which seem to 
belong to the character of woman ; but withal 
he possesses not only the courage but seem- 
ingly the toughness and endurance of a griz- 
zly bear. 

Througliout his journeys Ool. Fre*nont')S 
astronomical observations were made b^' him- 
self, and were never omitted in consequence 
of cold, fatigue, hunger, or danger. One I'xf 
his men says that he has seen him sitting pa- 
tiently on the snow three or four hours in the 
night, with tiie thermometer twenty or thhcy 
degrees below zero, waiting patiently for the 
appearance of a star, and handling the brass 
instrument without gloves. 

The genuineness, simplicity, and strength 
of his character inspire those around him with 
regard and esteem. A recent traveller in 
Kansas stopped at the house of Solomon, a 
Delaware, v,-ho travelled for years witii Ool. 
Fremont, and is now a prosperous farmer in 
that territory. He was received with ordi- 
nary hospitality, but when the visitor inform- 
ed Solomon that he was a friend of Ool. Fre- 
mont, the heart of the Indian as well as his 
house seemed to open. He could not do too 
much, and he rendered tlie stranger before he 
parted with him a very important service. 
Solomon had a child about a year old, named 
Jolin 0. Fiemont. Saghuudai, the brawny 
old Delaware chief, was recently at Washing- 
ton. He could speak only a few words of 



English, but among these were the following, 
which he ofren repeated : " Fremont, brave 
man — brave man — Ool. Fremont, brave man!" 

People who read a preface at all, generally 
read it after they have finished the body of 
the work ; so, for convenience sake, as an 
Irishman would say, it seems proper that the 
beginning uf a book should be at the end. 

It is quite customary for persons who write 
the biographies of candidates to disclaim all 
reference, in preparing their works, to the 
pending election. 

Supposing them to tell the truth, it must be 
admitted that such books follow marvellously 
quick in the wake of the nominating conven- 
tions. In this instance, no disclaimer of the 
kind can be put fortli. Almost the sole object 
of this brief sketch of the life of Ool. Fremonfe 
lias been to promote his election to the Presi* 
dency. It lias been written in tlie conddent 
belief that all that is requisite to secure his 
choice to that office, is to make his character 
and principles generally known and understood 
by the voters of the Unitec' States. 

An obscure boy, deprived at an early age, by 
death, of the counsels of his fatlisr; friendlese, 
save the hearts which his own sweet temper 
and noble qualities won ; with the hard hand 
of poverty laid heavily upon him ; we have seen 
him rise to distinction by his own vigoroi> 
and persevering exertions, till the earth is lilied 
with the renown of his exploits. The path- 
finder through trackless and desolate regions, 
he has opened a vast empire to settlement and 
, civilization. Oountless as the stars of heaven, 
or the sands upon the sea shore, are the myri- 
ads of human beings who, within tiie centuries 
10 come, sliall follow in the way which, Avith 
tlie aid of celestial light and the telescopic 
glass, he first located and made plain. He haa 
written his name in the clear sunbeams on the 
summits of the everlasting hills; and rendered 
his fame durable by linking it to star-eyed 
science, lirave yet merciful ; as a ot)nqueror, 
he sought not to devastate but to improve. 
With the drawn sword in his right hand, the 
proffer of peace he carried aiway* in his left. 

In the similarity of occupa^fc> and other 
circumstances ratlier of an accidental charac- 
ter, a parallel has been traced between Fre- 
mont and Washington. Afar more important 
resemblance exists in that calm steadfastness 
of purpose which long outlives the resolution 
of ordinary men, and possesess in itself some- 
thing of the nature of immortality ; and in 
that strength of will which executes plans of 
magnitude beyond the power of original con- 
ception in the common mind, and rising with 
comphcated difficvdties and trying emergen- 
cies into gigantic pro])ortions, constitutes an 
almost superhunaan power. '", 



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